Suing a video game rom site and being awarded $2.1 million in damages doesn’t mean much if the defendant can’t pay. Apparently, Nintendo’s having trouble collecting from RomUniverse founder Matthew Storman, who’s already missed a $50 monthly sanctions payment to the video game publisher.
You can’t get blood from a stone, and you can’t squeeze a relatively measly $50 payment out of a guy whose primary source of income was the video game rom site you sued into oblivion. Earlier this year Nintendo’s 2019 lawsuit against website RomUniverse concluded with the site being shut down and Nintendo awarded $2.1 million dollars in damages. That’s $35,000 for each of the 49 Nintendo games found on the site plus $400,000 in trademark damages. The chances of Matthew Storman, who defended himself in court and whose only source of income was the now-defunct rom site, being able to pay those damages are incredibly slim. In a recent court filing obtained by Torrentfreak, Nintendo complains that Storman hasn’t made his court mandated monthly payment of $50.
In the filing, Nintendo seeks a permanent injunction against Storman to ensure that he does not re-launch RomUniverse and resume distributing video game roms. In the filing, which can be viewed in full at Torrenfreak, Nintendo’s lawyers cite Storman’s inability to give them 50 bucks as a demonstration of his disregard for his legal obligations.
“Not only did Defendant not address his violation of the Court’s Order in the Opposition, but he continues to ignore the Order and has not yet made any payments to Nintendo,” the filing reads. “This failure to make even the modest $50/month payment, an amount that he proposed and agreed to, demonstrates that Nintendo has no adequate remedy at law for Defendant’s past or future infringement and underscores the need for a permanent injunction.”
Last month Storman filed a motion to have the court consider not making him pay Nintendo $2.1 million.
G/O Media may get a commission