SMK Sues Big N

Machinery component maker SMK (Shinagawa, Tokyo) filed a complaint against Nintendo for breach of contract in Kyoto District Court.

According to SMK, Nintendo signed a long-term contract with SMK for manufacturing Super NES cartridges for the North American market in May 1994. The amount of production was expected to be one million units per month. SMK had built a new plant in Mexico and began operation in October 1994. SMK accuses Nintendo of abruptly terminating the contract unilaterally in January 1997.

SMK seeks two hundred million yen as compensation to cover the cost of building the Mexico plant.

Nintendo responded by saying, "We believe that we have not done anything incurring such an accusation."