Nintendo Pushes for Trade Sanctions to Combat Global Video Game Piracy

Company Designates China, Paraguay and Mexico As Most Prominent Offenders

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 14, 2003--Nintendo of

America Inc. is seeking assistance from the United States Trade

Representative in Washington D.C. to increase efforts to combat

"serious weaknesses in the intellectual property regimes" in China,

Paraguay and Mexico, all of which are greatly impacting Nintendo

business worldwide.

Nintendo, its publishers and developers are being injured by the

continued manufacture and sale of counterfeit Nintendo products

resulting in nearly $650 million in lost sales in 2002.

"China remains the world's principal site for manufacturing of

pirated cartridge-based video games, and Paraguay is a major

transshipment point for regional distribution of pirated goods in the

Western Hemisphere," explains Jodi Daugherty, director, anti-piracy,

Nintendo of America. "In Mexico, Nintendo has been battling with a

pirate over its famous Game Boy(R) trademark for 10 years."

Nintendo is asking the Chinese government to pursue criminal

prosecutions and impose sanctions against the counterfeiters. Last

year, Nintendo confiscated nearly one million pieces of pirated

products and video game components in China from 135 retail and

manufacturing facilities, almost all in the Guangdong Province. Also,

many of the items were destined for export across the globe to Europe,

Latin America and North America.

Nintendo's commitment to eradicating piracy in Paraguay is viewed

as being more important now than ever, as reports from The Washington

Post (October 2001) and CNN (November 2002) link pirating crimes to

financing of the international terrorist organization Hezbollah.

Nintendo is urging the Paraguay government to renew the bilateral

Memorandum of Understanding agreed upon in 1998. More than 4.4 million

illegal Nintendo products have been confiscated in Paraguay since the

bilateral trade agreement was signed -- the greatest number of

infringing Nintendo products seized in the Western Hemisphere.

Counterfeit Nintendo games also are readily available in most

Mexican metropolitan areas. Two months ago, during the area's largest

recent seizure, the Mexican Attorney General captured 20,000 pirated

Game Boy Advance cartridges in Manzanillo. Relying heavily on border

enforcement and assistance from both Mexican and U.S. Customs

authorities, Nintendo is calling for important changes within Customs

to control corruption and toughen penalties for offenders. Nintendo

also seeks to resolve a trademark dispute that has been languishing in

the Mexican court system for over a decade.

Additionally, Nintendo cites concerns of protecting its

intellectual property rights in Chile, the European Union, Hong Kong,

South Korea, Taiwan, and Venezuela.

As the worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of

interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co. Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan,

manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home

video game systems. The systems include Game Boy(R), Nintendo(R) 64,

Game Boy Advance and Nintendo GameCube(TM). Since the release of its

first home video game system in 1983, Nintendo has sold more than 1.6

billion video games worldwide, creating enduring industry icons such

as Mario(TM) and Donkey Kong(R) and launching such franchises as

Zelda(TM) and Pokemon(R). As a wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of

America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for

Nintendo's operations in the Western Hemisphere.

For more information about Nintendo or any Nintendo product visit

the company's Web sites, www.nintendo.com, www.nintendogamecube.com or

www.gameboy.com.