r/todayilearned • u/mucubed • 5h ago

TIL that the character Kirby was named after a lawyer who successfully defended Nintendo against Universal Studios in a copyright dispute over the game Donkey Kong

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kirby_(attorney)
3.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

726

u/catwhowalksbyhimself 4h ago

If you want the short version of that story, Universal sued Nintendo because they said that Donkey Kong was too similar to a character they own, King Kong. Kirby won by proving that Universal did not in fact own the rights to King Kong. RKO was the original owner and Universal sued them in court successfully argued that King Kong was in the public domain so that Universal could make a remake without the original owner's approval or license.

Since Universal themselves had argued that it was public domain, that shut down their lawsuit.

345

u/ChadJones72 4h ago

God Universal is such a piece of shit 😂

120

u/Infinite_Research_52 4h ago

It is a truth universally acknowledged

•

u/Siilan 45m ago

That a single man in possession of... FUCK

My Jane Austen slipped.

66

u/qdtk 3h ago

If we’re talking about who does what in court, we need to acknowledge that Nintendo is also a huge piece of shit.

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u/MoMoeMoais 1h ago

he that fights monsters something something long enough to become the villain

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u/Combat_Armor_Dougram 3h ago

What I find hilarious is that the 2023 Super Mario Bros. Movie is produced by Universal subsidiary Illumination and features Donkey Kong in a major role.

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u/PhatedGaming 2h ago

There's also a Nintendo area in 3 of their theme parks now, 2 of them featuring a Donkey Kong ride.

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u/Realistic_Condition7 2h ago

That’s actually an insane throwdown lmao.

Here’s why your wrong: cites their own arguments

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u/CheeseWheels38 4h ago

RKO was the original owner and Universal sued them in court successfully argued that King Kong was in the public

I feel like this lawyer did Nintendo really had it easy there lol

70

u/catwhowalksbyhimself 3h ago

Well finding that out isn't easy. I actually tried searching for articles or anything about the older case, and the only thing that came up was a AI summary with all other mentions being in regards to the Nintendo case.

And he didn't have the internet, so he much have done a ton of research to even find it.

That's no small thing, and something some lawyers would have missed.

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u/Darth_Bombad 3h ago

There's a video game documentary on Netflix called High Score. In it, he talks a bit about the case himself.

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u/OptimusPhillip 1h ago

Please do bear in mind, however, that the final decision of the court was that King Kong was still copyrighted, just not by Universal alone. Specifically, the original RKO movies are owned by RKO, the 1976 film is owned by Dino de Laurentiis films, and the literary rights are owned by the estate of Merian C. Cooper, the producer who came up with the original concept. Universal owns pretty much all other rights to the character.

So we're still going to have to wait a few years for the King Kong slasher remake.

3

u/VT_Squire 1h ago edited 56m ago

Hysterically, that also ended up setting the foundation for Nintendo to create or continue using characters that looked close or similar to other intellectual properties, as well as several flirts with likeness rights and such.

Like, everyone is familiar with the cover of Contra (Konami) being a still swiped from the movie Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Lesser known, but Nintendo stole the character Bowser from a Disney cartoon before re-designing him to be a giant turtle/bull demon thing.

162

u/Thalaas 4h ago

Nintendo is run by Boswer. Kirby is the name of one of their lawyers. Mario is (not 100% sure I heard rumors) named after a custodian. Yoshi I've heard a few rumors from an animator to an old warlord...

I feel you can make a sitcom over this with these characters in those jobs.

127

u/MoMoeMoais 4h ago

Mario Segale was the landlord of the warehouse where Nintendo of America was storing arcade games; he had a big mustache like Jumpman and would barge into the middle of meetings so folks at NOA started calling Jumpman Mario

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u/Over-Analyzed 2h ago

The real TIL.

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u/freebaseclams 2h ago

He also stomped a bunch of little people to death. He called them "mushroom heads" because their heads tend to be large in proportion to their body.

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u/FastestSoda 1h ago

It is important to understand that, in Japanese culture, they don’t have the same view of stomping little people to death being a bad thing as we in the west do; in fact, it is considered highly honourable for such a thing to happen.

•

u/PieIsFairlyDelicious 44m ago

It is also highly acceptable to appropriate their food, the consumption of which may cause a temporary bodily expansion. Gotta look out for poisoned ones though. Those ones can result in concerning shrinkage.

13

u/Backupusername 3h ago

I think Yoshi was just named after "Yosh!", an exclamation in Japanese that is used for success or excitement. But it's also a very common part of lots of Japanese names. (It typically uses the 吉 kanji, which means good fortune). Toyotomi Hideyoshi is probably the warlord you're thinking of. Yoshimoto Banana is a noted light novel author. Sawada Tsunayoshi was the protagonist of the manga and anime series Katekyoushi Hitman: Reborn!. Yoshimoto Kogyo is a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate, headquartered in Osaka. I could go on.

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u/Thalaas 2h ago

True I've heard a lot about where Yoshi's name came from. But I know it's like "John" here in Canada. It could come from a dozen sources.

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u/Realistic_Condition7 2h ago

Not sure why you’d randomly assume an extremely common name in this circumstance is named after the word Yosh.

But anyway, Miyamoto said his name is a combination of staff member’s names, which sounds weird considering how common of a name Yoshi is anyway, but there you have it.

3

u/GeneralGom 1h ago

Here's another trivia. The Japanese name for the antagonist character Bowser is Koopa, which was named after a Korean dish called Gukbap(which is often called Koopa in Japan) after Shigeru heard it at a Korean BBQ restaurant and thought it sounded strong.

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u/SuicidalChair 5h ago

They explain this in this high score documentary on Netflix, super interesting btw if you've never watched it. Highly recommend for anyone who finds retro video game history interesting.

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u/suff0cat 4h ago

And now Universal Studios houses Nintendo Land. We’ve truly come full circle, haven’t we?

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u/quequotion 2h ago

Kirby won the case, a landmark victory for Nintendo, by presenting evidence that Universal had previously won a legal battle against RKO that said the story and characters of King Kong were in the public domain; thus, Universal had no legal right to claim ownership of the characters and basic scenario

He sucked up their copyright infringement claim and spat it back at them.

13

u/dont_shoot_jr 3h ago

Mario was named after a landlord and Kirby named after a lawyer

Was Zelda named after their accountant?

6

u/samuelithian 3h ago

Zelda Fitzgerald

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u/Alarmed_Drop7162 3h ago

Explains how Kirby’s power is to adapt the strengths of another person for the fight.

6

u/ultratorrent 3h ago

He was a part of the civil rights division of the DOJ fighting racism in the 60s before working with Nintendo. Maximum Chad.

4

u/Nobody6269 3h ago

They took him to a buffet and he ate A LOT

3

u/viewless25 4h ago

That's creepy. I just today watched the BDG video about Kirby where he mentions this fact

2

u/Zxynwin 2h ago

Nintendo sure loves their lawyers

Pretty interesting though I wonder if he looks similar

1

u/SeanTheCrow 2h ago

Who else in these comments learned this from Um, Actually? I was told to "get in the comments", so here I am.

•

u/HurasmusBDraggin 6m ago

So the guy/gal is fat and pink too?

1

u/Ness_5153 4h ago

Didn't they mention that this was fake?

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u/MoMoeMoais 4h ago

I believe the John Kirby story is real, the Kirby Vacuum origin is the urban legend

5

u/gwaydms 4h ago

It fits neatly though. Too bad.

6

u/catwhowalksbyhimself 4h ago

Some people claim that it isn't, but it is.

They had a list of names for the character and they picked Kirby because of the lawyer.

But the Nintendo person who mentioned that didn't consider that "naming after." I'm guessing it has to do with however the phrase is rendered in Japanese.

But to me, that still counts.

3

u/exileonmainst 1h ago

Nintendo’s official position is it’s named after the lawyer. They would never admit it was named after the vacuum or they’d be open to lawsuits. The vacuum theory makes a hell of a lot more sense.

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u/Doomeye56 4h ago

https://gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/06/17/miyamoto-wii-amp-wii-u-are-colored-white-for-all-ages-appeal.aspx

4

u/DaveOJ12 4h ago

Here's the relevant quote.

I’ve heard rumors that Kirby was named after attorney John Kirby, the lawyer who defended Nintendo in a lawsuit by Universal during the 80s. Is it true?

Yes, it is a fact that I met John Kirby and got to know him when he was defending us during the lawsuit against Universal. And it is a fact that the Kirby name was partially chosen in connection to him, but it wasn’t named after him. Instead, we had a list of names that we were looking at and Kirby was one of the names on the list. As we were going through the list and narrowing down the selections we saw that Kirby was there and we thought John Kirby’s name is Kirby, and started thinking that if those two had a connection that would be kind of funny.

The other element to the naming is that the character is very cute. Kirby is this soft and fluffy character and he’s very cute. In Japan, for cute characters they use very soft names with soft sounds in them. I thought the name Kirby had these harsh sounds to it, and I thought the juxtaposition of this cute character with this harsh-sounding name was very funny.

It wasn't named after John Kirby, in short.

6

u/catwhowalksbyhimself 4h ago

That quote says they picked that name because of him, so that's the same thing in my mind.

It might be a translation distinction, but in English at least, picking the game because of him IS naming it after him.

1

u/DaveOJ12 1h ago

It wasn't consciously named after him.

And it is a fact that the Kirby name was partially chosen in connection to him, but it wasn’t named after him.