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2 Yamato Copyright Suits Settled for 250 Million Yen

The Tohokushinsha Film Corporation has announced on Monday that it has settled two copyright lawsuits over the Dai Yamato spinoff from the Space Battleship Yamato anime franchise. An unspecified party has agreed to pay Tohokushinsha 250 million yen (US$2.8 million) to settle. Tohokushinsha filed two suits against the Dai Yamato licensor Animation Soft and the game sellers Sankyo, Bisty, International Card System, and Fields in June and November 2004. Under its former name of Venture Soft Co. Ltd., Animation Soft had co-produced 2004-2007's Dai Yamato Zero-go video anime series by Yamato co-creator Leiji Matsumoto. In the 2004 lawsuits, Tohokushinsha demanded restitution for Sankyo's CR Fever Dai Yamato pachinko (vertical pinball machine) series and BISTY'S Dai Yamato pachi-slo (slot machines installed in pachinko parlors) games.

However, the First Tokyo District Court dismissed one of the lawsuits in December 2006 and said that Tohokushinsha had no copyright claim. Tohokushinsha appealed the dismissal. This past August, original Yamato producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki announced his latest attempt to revive the space opera franchise, and said that all rights have been cleared for a new anime project next year. Nishizaki, Matsumoto, and Tohokushinsha had been locked in legal disputes over the rights to the Yamato franchise for the better part of a decade. Tohokushinsha said in its Monday announcement that it could not comment further on the agreement between the different parties.

Source: Nikkei's ITpro, Sankei Shimbun