Bandai Entertainment Cracks Down on DVD Piracy and Intellectual Copyright Infringement

Cypress, CA (July 7, 2004) —Bandai Entertainment announced today that it has served lawsuits against several retailers for engaging in the duplication, importation, distribution, and/or sale of unauthorized merchandise infringing upon copyrighted and trademarked properties at this year's Anime Expo convention in Anaheim, California. Defendants in Bandai's lawsuit include:

Otaku Entertainment, Inc., dba MANGA HOUSE
EJ International, Inc., dba ABCTOY4ME.COM and ANIMECIRCLE.COM
Anime Combo
MTWC Group, Inc., dba Kawaii Anime and Kawaii-Anime.com
John Lo, Inc., dba House of Anime and Houseofanime.com

“The increased proliferation of counterfeit merchandise and DVD piracy of Japanese animated properties has gone on for too long”, states Ken Iyadomi, Executive Vice President of Bandai Entertainment. “The time has come to take a stand against the flood of cheap knockoffs and blatant bootlegs. The vendors who sell pirated merchandise, CDs, and DVDs are causing huge economic losses for legitimate businesses and must be stopped.”

With the full cooperation of all those who participate in the creation and distribution of these products in Japan and elsewhere - Bandai Entertainment aims to aggressively protect its intellectual property rights and licenses through these actions and hopes that these lawsuits will send a clear message to other retailers and distributors that distributing counterfeit or bootleg DVDs and merchandise will not be tolerated.

Consumers and retailers are urged to contact Bandai Entertainment at [email protected] to report other distributors suspected of selling counterfeit DVDs and merchandise.

Bandai Entertainment, INC. is the premier distributor of Japanese animation on DVD home video in North America. The company has distributed notable titles like Cowboy Bebop, Gundam Seed, Witch Hunter Robin, and Wolf's Rain. Bandai Entertainment, INC. is a subsidiary of Bandai America Inc., who makes the toys for the hit television series, Power Rangers, Digimon, and Mobile Suit Gundam. All U.S. operations are headquartered in a large, ultra-modern facility in Cypress, Calif. Bandai Co., Ltd. is the third largest toy company in the world comprising 53 subsidiaries in 18 countries. In addition to toys and children's entertainment, Bandai Co.'s global interests include video game software, multimedia, music and full-length feature films, vending machines, trading cards, candies, and licensed apparel. Bandai Entertainment is headquartered in Cypress, California and additional company and product information is available through our website at www.bandai-ent.com.