Koei Tecmo Settles Nobunaga’s Ambition Lawsuit With Yoozoo

On July 10, 2024, Koei Tecmo announced that it has reached an agreement with Yoozoo Games in regards to a copyright lawsuit. The original suit was filed in April 2024.

Koei Tecmo filed a lawsuit due to malicious copyright infringement. Yoozoo has repeatedly, even after Koei Tecmo sent cease-and-desist letters, used copyright assets from Nobunaga’s Ambition and Taiko Risshiden in its adverts. According to the lawsuit, Yoozoo has used Koei Tecmo’s music, logo, and images to advertise for Nariagari: Hana to Bu no Sengoku, Infinity Kingdom, and Dynasty Origins: Conquest. Despite Yoozoo promising to delete all of the copyrighted materials from its marketing, it refused to comply.

Yoozoo has apologized for the trouble and damages it has caused Koei Tecmo, as well as acknowledged the fact that it used stolen copyrighted assets to advertise its own games. Koei Tecmo has accepted the settlement out of court, as Yoozoo has promised to implement in-house measures to prevent similar incidents in the future. At the end of the report, Koei Tecmo explains that aside from copyright infringement, using its assets may cause users to believe that a game is Koei Tecmo’s when it’s not.

Yoozoo Games is not the only company to have gotten in trouble with Koei Tecmo over copyright infringement. In 2022, Bekko Games also settled outside of court after Koei Tecmo sued the company for using its copyrighted assets in game adverts.