Banilla Games Continues Its Ongoing Anti-Piracy Campaign

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Mar 29, 2023, 14:25 ET

Lawsuits Served on Two Chinese Manufacturers of Counterfeit Games Attending the 2023 Amusement Expo International

LAS VEGAS, March 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Banilla Games, Inc. announced today that it served lawsuits on two Chinese manufacturers of counterfeit games that had booths at the 2023 Amusement Expo International (AEI), held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two manufacturers, with operations in Guangzhou Province, China, are:

Guangzhou Crazy Software Technology Co., Ltd. (Crazy Software) and
Guangzhou YingFeng Technology Co. Ltd. (YingFeng).

According to the lawsuits, both Crazy Software and YingFeng advertise counterfeit versions of Banilla's games and then ship those counterfeit games, containing pirated software, into the United States. Banilla alleges that Crazy Software knowingly shipped counterfeit versions of four of Banilla's best-selling game suites (with each suite consisting of five "packaged" game titles)—Fusion, Fusion 4, Fusion 5, and Fusion Link—into the Commonwealth of Virginia. Crazy Software's actions infringe no fewer than eleven (11) registered copyrights covering the game suites and the individual game titles therein. Similarly, YingFeng is alledgedly accepting orders from U.S.-based purchasers for its counterfeit Banilla products and shipping those products containing pirated software into the U.S. Crazy Software's and YingFeng's actions not only constitute IP theft but also, among other things, unfair competition and trade secret misappropriation.

China is the world's leader in supplying counterfeit and pirated goods. In 2020, China was the source of 83% (by value) of all counterfeit and pirated goods seized by U.S. Customs and Border Control. See Michelle Toh, CNN Business, "The US accuses Tencent and Alibaba of letting sellers traffic fake goods" (Feb. 18, 2022), available at https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/business/china-tencent-alibaba-notorious-markets-list-intl-hnk/index.html. Chinese e-commerce websites are flooded with listings offering to sell counterfeit and pirated goods. Because of that, many of those sites appear on the USTR's Notorious Markets List. See Yuka Hayashi, Wall Street Journal, "Alibaba, Tencent E-Commerce Sites Tagged by U.S. for Counterfeit Sales" (Feb. 18, 2022), available at https://www.wsj.com/articles/alibaba-tencent-e-commerce-sites-tagged-by-u-s-for-counterfeit-sales-11645113638; see also 2021 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, available at https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/IssueAreas/IP/2021%20Notorious%20Markets%20List.pdf.

IP theft harms American businesses and workers. Indeed, as the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has stated, "global trade in counterfeit and pirated goods undermines critical U.S. innovation and creativity and harms American workers." USTR Press Release; available at https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2022/february/ustr-releases-2021-review-notorious-markets-counterfeiting-and-piracy.

In late 2021, Banilla Games undertook a campaign to fight back against counterfeit games coming into the U.S. from China. Since then, Banilla Games has brought more than twenty lawsuits against those that possess, place, distribute, import, or sell counterfeit Banilla games. The suits have resulted in, to date and still counting, over $1 million in settlements with and default judgments against infringers. Moreover, Banilla Games has obtained several findings of willful infringement against infringing defendants. Today's announcement and actions should serve as a warning to other counterfeiters, whether located in the United States or elsewhere.

AEI is a conference and trade show sponsored by the industry's leading professional associations: The American Amusement Machine Association (AAMA) and Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA).

Banilla Games is based in Greenville, NC, and designs, develops, and distributes products for various board, nudge, skill, redemption, and amusement game markets, and is licensed in the States of Georgia, Iowa, and Washington and has games approved for the State of Nebraska.

SOURCE BANILLA GAMES, INC.