3 weeks Ago By Joe Pring
A 58-year-old man arrested and charged with violating Japan’s Trademark Act by modifying and selling Nintendo Switch consoles has been convicted and sentenced. As reported by NTV News (via GamesIndustry ), the defendant was initially arrested in March 2024 on suspicion of “welding modified parts to the circuit board of a second-hand Nintendo Switch” and selling it online for 28,000 Yen (appox. $200 USD).
While it’s unclear what exactly the modifications were for, game consoles are often modified to enable the user to play pirated games on the system, which may have been the case here. According to NTV, the man, Fumihiro Otobe from Ryugasaki City, Ibaraki Prefecture, was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for three years, on April 14, 2025, for “selling illegally modified Nintendo Switches.” A fine of 500,000 Yen (approx.
$3500 USD) was also issued. What is the Trademark Act? As detailed by Japanese Law Translation , the Trademark Act is defined as encompassing the following: “The purpose of this Act is, through the protection of trademarks, to ensure upholding the reputation of businesses of persons who use trademarks, thereby contributing to the development of the industry and the protection of the interests of consumers.” While it’s not known exactly which clause in Japan’s Trademark Act was broken in this case, copyright infringement convictions in Japan can carry prison terms between five to ten years and fines of up to 10 million Yen (approx.
$70,000). Outside of this specific case, Nintendo is known to be extremely protective of its intellectual property and has pursued numerous high-profile legal battles to do so. On February 2, 2025, the company, claiming copyright infringement, lost a legal battle against a supermarket in Costa Rica named Super Mario , with the latter granted the rights to keep its name.
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