Nintendo has a reputation for aggressively protecting its IPs and will use the law where it can. In July last year, it launched a lawsuit against two ROM sites loveROMs and loveRETRO.co and in November the site owners reached a $12 million settlement with the company.
Polygon reports that Nintendo has once again taken legal action against a ROM site. This time, the target is RomUniverse, which reportedly offers memberships for $30 per year that allows users to download “an unlimited number of pirated games, with higher speeds than non-members.”
Nintendo’s lawsuit alleges that RomUniverse is one of the most popular and notorious online hubs for its pirated games, with nearly 300,000 Nintendo Switch game downloads and “more than 500,000” downloads for Nintendo 3DS games.
Nintendo is seeking $150,000 in damages for each copyright infringement, along with $2 million for every trademark infringement. With over 60,000 ROMs available to download, the potential total damages should have the site operators worried.
