Why is Nintendo so Overprotective of its Intellectual Property?

Nintendo is famous for the extraordinary harshness with which it protects its Intellectual Property.

But why exactly IS the Big N so harsh? Is Nintendo behaving reasonably, when it issues takedowns, or files lawsuits? What can you do to protect yourself? And what does the future hold for Nintendo and its attitude towards intellectual property?

Let's figure it all out together. Let me know what you think too, in the comments!

- Moony

[moon-channel]

In what seems like cosmic irony, I am unable to monetize this video due to a copyright claim by, of all entities, Universal Pictures, for using the Mario Movie trailer footage!

The money is not important, and it was never the point of Moon Channel, but the coincidence is a great footnote for this video!

This video has also taken off far beyond my wildest expectations. I am considering a follow-up video regarding Sega that is focused a little more on Corporate Law, with a little meander into IP again.

I'd also like to do some other gentler videos, like going over the new Nintendo Direct and offering thoughts.

Let me know what you think and what you'd like to see. I am deeply humbled by all the comments and support. I will aspire to continue to make videos that hopefully are a bit more serious without being anxiety-inducing, mature without being condescending, and wholesome without being overbearing.

Thank you for tuning in!

[pivotguydc]

The irony of going from winning a lawsuit against Universal to opening their own section in Universal's theme park is not lost on me

[guswautier]

I just love the line "the final boss of intelectual property law, disney"

[MingofangYT]

“Big Business is ranked competitive capitalism” might just be the most phenomenal sentence I’ve ever heard

[ronarscorruption]

I laughed so loud at "we need to talk about parallel universes... Actually, we need to talk about the law, which is worse and more confusing"

[CatherineKimport]

You ever just get the urge to grab an entire civilization by the collar and scream 'YOU REALIZE THERE ARE OTHER WAYS WE COULD BE DOING THINGS?"

[huu]

29:15 "This isn't harvest moon, it's story of seasons"
This is actually a whole legal trademark rabbit-hole itself

[TechieindahHood]

As someone who had done CS at Nintendo (not a former employee tho, which I say for legal reasons LMAO), this is why I was not allowed to say “Switch” or “Joycons”. It was only “Nintendo Switch” or “Joycon” (for plural and singular), cuz I was told saying the other ones weakened Nintendo’s legal ability to hold onto them.

[NotAGoodUsername]

If I was single-handedly holding onto the last vestiges of Japan's entire postwar economic miracle, I'd be pretty paranoid and skittish too.

[DandifiedToe]

The mention of trademark generalization brought me back to a scene of Drake and Josh where the Nintendo DS is featured. In the scene Megan is playing on it and says "I'm going to play my Nintendo DS" her brother then takes it from her shortly afterwards and then she says "give me back my Nintendo DS!". For the longest time even as a kid I was confused as to why she said the whole name rather than just DS and for some reason that question lingered in my mind for years. That is until I started getting into law, then it clicked: Nintendo's fear of trademark generalization probably forced the show runners to write the script as the full name instead of its abbreviation. Really goes to show the lengths Nintendo would go through even in things where it was only mentioned for 20 seconds

[bottledwaterprod]

One Winged Angel playing over the Disney castle logo was a stroke of genius. As someone constantly harping on about how how Disney made an empire off of expired copyrights while simultaneously making sure that those copyrights never expired again, I salute you. This is the music mashup I'll be using to illustrate the point from now on. Disney these days truly is the Sephiroth to anyone with artistic integrity.

[polarknight]

Man, imagine being John Kirby. The frickin dopamine rush you'd get every time you see a Nintendo ad or anything to do with Pokémon and just be like, "I made that happen."

[Zekrom]

I think one missing point is that at a time they were licensing their IPs in 90s, specifically the philips CDi console and the infamously bad legend of zelda games. This was another blow to Nintendo regarding to the act of lending their rights to be used by third parties and that's another traumatizing blow that made Nintendo very protective of their IPs

[PowerPandaMods]

Important note: Pokemon is not owned by Nintendo. It is much stickier than that. Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures Inc. have partial pieces of the pie, but it is managed by The Pokemon Company LTC. Add on top of that a term known as "slicensing", or granting extemely specific copyright licenses, and it gets even more hairy. Under slicensing, the same copyright holder could grant one toy company rights to make a 2" non-poseable figure, and a completely different company rights to a 2" poseable figure. All that to say, I once tried to get the license for a non-collectable Pokemon card game, but due to the multiple shareholders and the slicensing, nobody was able to figure out who actually owned the copyright, and I eventually gave up.

[MsQuote]

Fun Fact: The whole "New York" setting wasn't a thing stated in any official material until the Super Show came out, and apparently this isn't a retcon, it's just that for some reason after the super show came out everyone knew that the Mario Bros. were from Brooklyn

[opalander]

"Now let's take a look at what Nintendo fears."

*Captain Crunch ad*
Truly the most terrifying thing

[darkraven]

It completely baffles me up to this day that Pokemon is literally the #1 biggest media franchise on this entire planet, surpassing the likes of Disney, Mickey Mouse, Star Wars, Marvel and such. That is a very acknowledgeable feat. This brought in some extra info I never knew about Nintendo and their overprotective nature. I never knew they had a problem with the very company that they are now working with to make a Mario movie coming put soon at the time of this comment. Hearing this from a legal perspective from an actual lawyer made this all the more engaging and informative.

[Irreve-rsible]

I've always wanted a geniune and educated breakdown as to why Nintendo is how it is legally, but never found anyone actually explain it. As a big Nintendo fan, thanks alot! I appreciate it! I'll try to show this video to other curious, and uneducated people such as myself.

[raphaelmarquez]

I'm pretty sure Japanese copyright laws may be the primary reason behind both Nintendo's overprotectiveness and business practices because Japan has a different viewpoint on how people should consume media, which is why J-Pop hasn't become mainstream like K-Pop due to copyright laws from Japan's music industry.

[tylertriezenberg]

I like what you said about permissiveness as part of public goodwill. Someone was comparing Bethesda's permissiveness like with the Fallout London mod to Nintendo's strict control with zero nuance. It makes sense from both company's perspectives though. People generally have a good opinion of Nintendo, whereas Bethesda, especially the core studio, is in a bit of a rough patch with fans after years of disappointments like with FO76 and the multiple delays for Starfield.