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HARMONY GOLD AND PLAYMATES LAWSUIT SETTLEDFrom owner-rpg-industry-L@phoenyx.net Mon Jun 16 00:23:36 1997RPGI: HARMONY GOLD AND PLAYMATES LAWSUIT SETTLED Date: Sun, 15 Jun 1997 08:50:03 -0500
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.announce HARMONY GOLD AND PLAYMATES LAWSUIT SETTLED For all of our BattleTech fans who continue to express an interest, we are happy to report that the parties have fully settled the lawsuit brought against FASA Corporation by Harmony Gold USA, Inc. and Playmates Toys Inc. Following the settlement, the case was completely dismissed from court. The terms of the settlement are strictly confidential and thus can not be disclosed. We would, however, like to address a few of the issues about which there has been much discussion. At issue in this federal court litigation in Chicago were the rights to use certain visual design images that had appeared in FASA's BattleTech products and also appeared in Playmates' and Harmony Gold's Robotech products. FASA had, for more than a decade, incorporated into its fictional BattleTech universe a handful of images created and used in a Japanese television series known as Macross. FASA never claimed that it created those images. Rather, FASA has always steadfastly maintained that it used these images pursuant to a valid license from the Japanese. Harmony Gold and Playmates, however, challenged that claim as well as FASA's use of visual design images created over the years by FASA's own employees. FASA similarly challenged Playmates' and Harmony Gold's claims of rights to the Japanese images. As many of you know, FASA has already phased out of its products a number of designs, including the twelve specific design images that appeared in the Macross series. As a result, BattleTech players will no longer see in future products visual representations of any BattleMechs that FASA did not create. All of the names, fiction and statistics for these 'Mechs, remain in the history of the BattleTech universe. However, to avoid any confusion among players that could occur if the names or statistics of the discontinued 'Mech designs were used with new design images, FASA has no current plans to create new designs for the discontinued 'Mechs. Instead, FASA has chosen to concentrate its efforts on utilizing the more than 160 unique BattleMech designs in its library created specifically by FASA for BattleTech. We are happy that the Harmony Gold/Playmates lawsuit is behind us, and that we can continue to focus on bringing our customers the highest quality adventure gaming products available. We certainly appreciate all of the support we have received from our loyal fans. While we encourage your questions and comments, please understand that we are limited in what we can say, and therefore may not be able to provide complete answers to everyone's satisfaction.
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