Prima Responds to Nintendo

It didn't take long for Prima Communications to respond to Nintendo's lawsuit.

"After studying Nintendo's complaint about alleged copyright infringement by Prima against its strategy guides and magazines," said Ben Dominitz, the president and founder of Prima, "we believe that it is without merit."

On Wednesday, Nintendo of America filed suit in federal court in Seattle against Prima alleging that Prima's strategy guide for the N64 game GoldenEye 007 infringes upon Nintendo's copyrights to the game by including maps in its guide that Nintendo contends were copied directly from its Nintendo Power magazine and its own strategy guide to the game.

Dominitz continued, "The maps created by Prima are intended to provide factual information such as direction and location. That maps created for the same game are similar should come as no surprise.

"We find it unfortunate that rather than contacting Prima to resolve any concerns, Nintendo has chosen a very public venue to broadcast what appears to be a very limited legal conflict. Not only did Nintendo issue its press release before even serving Prima with its complaint, it also faxed copies of the release to news services. Companies interested in resolving conflicts do not act in this manner.

"For the past five years, Prima has published strategy guides about Nintendo products using Nintendo's own published guidelines for unofficial strategy guides without complaint from Nintendo. Moreover, despite other unofficial strategy guides on this game being available, which include maps and actual game screenshots, Nintendo has apparently chosen not to pursue legal action against them. They have instead singled out the clear market leader.

"We can only surmise by these actions that because of consumer preference for Prima strategy guides over Nintendo's own guides, Nintendo has strategic business reasons for using this heavy-handed approach.

"Many game companies have found that Prima-branded strategy guides have increased game sales. That is why so many game companies have chosen Prima as their strategy guide partner, and why the predominant number of guides published by Prima are licensed. That Nintendo would try to discourage Prima strategy guides on its games, especially now, seems counter-productive."

In September. Prima and Electronic Arts entered into a multiyear agreement for Prima to produce the official strategy guides for EA's brands EA Sports, Jane's Combat Simulations, Origin, Bullfrog, and Maxis. Prima also has licensing relationships with LucasArts, Eidos, Blizzard, and MicroProse, among other companies.