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John Kirby

Named in honor of John Kirby, who defended Nintendo in court against Universal Studios.

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February 18, 2022

Named in honor of John Kirby, who defended Nintendo in court against Universal Studios.

American attorney John Kirby.

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John Kirby

American attorney

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Biography

John J. Kirby, Jr. is an American attorney who was employed by the law firm Latham & Watkins LLP until June 30, 2007 where he served as head of the New York office's Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group and chairman of the New York Litigation Department from 1995 to 2004. Kirby has represented a number of notable corporations in legal disputes, among which the likes of PepsiCo., General Foods, and Warner-Lambert. One of his most well-known cases was Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd. In this case, he defended Nintendo against litigation from Universal City Studios in a dispute revolving around the video game Donkey Kong, which Universal claimed to be illegally based on King Kong. Kirby won the case, a landmark victory for Nintendo, by presenting evidence that Universal had previously won a legal battle against RKO that stated the story and characters of King Kong were in the public domain; thus, Universal had no legal right to claim ownership of the characters and basic scenario when the studio originally threatened legal action against Nintendo.

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