Angry Birds developer Rovio has won a major court case against copyright and trademark infringement.
The Finland-based studio filed the copyright case back in September, claiming that vending machine importer and operator Toy Amazon Corp. of Monterey Park, Calif., sold counterfeit Angry Birds products. Toy Amazon failed to present a defence, and U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest awarded Rovio $4.3 million for trademark and copyright infringement, reports Bloomberg.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1692145,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"D"}']Mobile gamers play Angry Birds for 3.3 million hours every day, and a significant amount of Rovio’s revenue comes from associated merchandise. Back in 2012, Angry Birds-licensed merchandise accounted for 40 percent of Rovio’s $200 million revenue. Times are tougher now, and merchandise sales dropped to just $44 million in 2014 — with Rovio’s total revenue dropping to $169 million.
A major Angry Birds motion picture is coming in 2016, and Rovio is hopeful this will help boost game and merchandise sales yet again. Stamping out fake merchandise will help with this goal.
Toy Amazon wasn’t the only defendent in the case, but the others involved settled with Rovio previously. The court issued an order barring further copyright and trademark infringements of Rovio’s intellectual property.