Nintendo has officially taken Genki to court for their Switch 2 demo in CES last January 2025.
Nintendo provided a straightforward explanation of their account of what happened and their claims in the court filings. As you may have expected, Nintendo’s main point of contention was the Switch 2 demo at CES. However, their court filings also presented additional incidents that established that the company sought to create publicity and interest in their own products after the event as well.
They cited incidents such as Genki CEO Edward Tsai posting a picture with the caption “Genki ninjas infiltrate Nintendo Kyoto HQ” and holding their “Genki Direct 2.” This was a video presentation posted hours after the Switch 2 Direct, showing off their Switch 2 accessories.
Nintendo explained that because Nintendo did not give them access to the Switch 2, they were violating their trademarks by claiming they were making Switch 2 accessories. You can read the relevant passages from Nintendo’s filing below:
53. Genki’s activities have been designed to capitalize on and appropriate the public’s anticipation for the release of Nintendo’s next-generation console.
54. Genki has used Nintendo’s trademarks and trade dress in connection with the marketing of its business and its unauthorized third-party accessories, in violation of Nintendo’s rights in those marks.
55. On information and belief, Genki falsely represented that it had access to an authentic unreleased model of Nintendo’s next-generation console. Genki has since stated through representatives that its claims of access were false.
56. Genki’s claims of compatibility would be impossible to guarantee without unauthorized, illegal early access to the Nintendo Switch 2. Thus, Genki has misled and is misleading the public as to its ability to guarantee the compatibility of its products with the Nintendo Switch 2.
57. Additionally or alternatively, Genki in fact illegally and/or illicitly gained access to a pre-release model of the Nintendo Switch 2, rendering its statements otherwise objectively false.
58. Defendant’s infringing use of Nintendo’s trademarks in its advertising is in direct competition with Nintendo’s and its licensee’s legitimate marketing of Nintendo’s new console and authorized accessories.
59. Nintendo has not authorized Defendant to use its marks, including the NINTENDO SWITCH Marks, in connection with Defendant’s business or products.
Genki definitely knew they were in hot water with Nintendo as far back as CES. Nintendo sent lawyers to talk to Genki while they were still at CES. Genki disavowed that they had any black market Switch 2 console, even though they said it was easy to get one, days after meeting those lawyers.
Even then, Genki’s position was hard to prove. That early, they made claims that the Switch 2 would not work on the original Switch dock even if it fit. This was the kind of information Genki would not have learned from Nintendo, and constitutes trademark violation.
For their part, Genki shared a statement that they were reviewing Nintendo’s lawsuit, but they were going ahead with their appearance at PAX East this week.
We believe you will find that a lot of fans believe Nintendo right to file this lawsuit, if they also hold the opinion that Genki did ruin Nintendo’s plans to announce and reveal the Switch 2. And it raises questions if other people and groups who revealed early information about the Switch 2 will also end up facing lawsuits from Nintendo. But for now, we are looking at what is possibly the easiest Nintendo lawsuit to predict.
