I find it rather surprising that nobody ever posted the original court documents, but they are located
here
It is actually a bit more in depth than what was written in
Macross World.
The original case is the pdf file on the left, with supplementary documents to the right. Two most notable sections of the court ruling are:
Which states that Tatsunoko Productions possesses the rights to merchandising and licensing of SDF: Macross overseas while obtaining all of the profit generated from the overseas market only. However, the oft-missed point is that, domestic profit is to be shared. So yes, Tatsu gets a piece of the pie for the domestic market, as well.
Then here is the other key factor:
This article indicates that Studio Nue possesses the intellectual property rights listed from index 1 - 41 of the supplementary material. They are the sole party able to utilize the properties listed from 1 - 41 and manipulate the said properties as they see fit. This excludes Tatsunoko Productions entirely.
No where on the court document indicates that Tatsu has the right to manipulate the original series or any of its sequels internationally and/or domestically. Therefore, it certainly does not give them the right to all future derivatives of Macross overseas. That was not part of the original document. Based on my personal interpretation, this may also mean that HG committed an illegal act by creating Robotech or the more recent Shadow Chronicles.
So this is the original court statement and proceeding document. Does it change anything? Not quite, but since I never saw a single post of the original document, I suppose I should do that for everyone.
Again, no legal action was brought against HG for obvious profit reasons. To be honest, I am less interested in seeing Macross merchandise legally being retailed here than to actually see Harmony Gold choke on its own words and burn in legal hell.
- Tak