ROM-hosting website owner ordered to pay over $2 million in damages as Nintendo wins lawsuit

It’s another win for Nintendo as a court has ruled in their favour and has ordered the owner of ROM-hosting website RomUniverse to pay over $2,100,000 in damages because of copyright infringement and federal trademark infringement. The lawsuit was first presented in September 2019 which saw Nintendo seeking damages from RomUniverse, a website that hosted pirated copies of Nintendo games. RomUniverse not only gave people the ability to download illegal copies of Nintendo titles, but it also offered a subscription service that uncapped the download limit for those willing to pay a premium.

The Judge decided not to issue a permanent injunction against Matthew Storman, the person behind the ROM-hosting website. According to the courts, Nintendo couldn’t show evidence of them suffering irreparable harm and the fact that Storman shut shop and closed the site, there was no immediate threat to Nintendo.

During the course of the lawsuit, the offending website was taken down last summer and while Nintendo originally filed for $15,000,000 in damages, the court reduced it to just over $2 million. Still, it’s another victory for Nintendo’s legal team which, let’s face it, are not ones to back down easily when it comes to vigorously protecting Nintendo’s IP.

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