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Dutch, U.S. Courts Rule for Upper Deck over Yu-Gi-Oh Cards

Courts in the Netherlands and the United States have ruled in Upper Deck's favor in two separate legal actions over Konami's attempts to terminate its Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game license with Upper Deck. A Dutch court ruled on December 24 that Konami cannot terminate its contract with Upper Deck Panoceanic BV and Upper Deck International BV for exclusive distribution of the card game in Europe. An American court also ruled last week against Konami's request for a temporary ban on Upper Deck's operations on Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

Upper Deck Panoceanic C.V. and Upper Deck International B.V. asserted on December 16 that their distribution agreements with Konami Digital Entertainment for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game was still in effect. This announcement came in response to a December 11 press release and a December 14 letter that Konami released to announce its reclaiming of "all operational and business aspects" of the trading card franchise. Upper Deck had acquired the right to produce the Yu-Gi-Oh! collectible card game in March of 2002, just six months after the anime version had premiered on the KIDS' WB programming block to record ratings.

Source: ICv2 (link 1, link 2)