At CES 2025, video game accessories manufacturer Genki surprised everyone by showing off a mock-up replica of the Nintendo Switch 2 console well ahead of the official announcement. It didn't take long for the notoriously litigious company to explore legal steps, which have now been officially filed in the United States, in the Central District of California. You can read the whole filing here, but these are some of the accusations levied by Nintendo:
- Genki’s claims of compatibility would be impossible to guarantee without unauthorized, illegal early access to the Nintendo Switch 2. Thus, Genki has misled and is misleading the public as to its ability to guarantee the compatibility of its products with the Nintendo Switch 2.
- Additionally or alternatively, Genki in fact illegally and/or illicitly gained access to a pre-release model of the Nintendo Switch 2, rendering its statements otherwise objectively false.
- Defendant’s infringing use of Nintendo’s trademarks in its advertising is in direct competition with Nintendo’s and its licensee’s legitimate marketing of Nintendo’s new console and authorized accessories.
- Nintendo has not authorized Defendant to use its marks, including the NINTENDO SWITCH Marks, in connection with Defendant’s business or products.
- Defendant had prior knowledge of Plaintiff’s NINTENDO SWITCH Marks before using those marks in connection with its marketing and accessories.
- Defendant intentionally reproduced Plaintiff’s NINTENDO SWITCH Marks on its fabricated mock-up of Nintendo’s next-generation console in order to simulate Plaintiff’s well-known brand and exploit and appropriate for itself the public goodwill associated with Plaintiff’s NINTENDO SWITCH Marks.
Genki, which is currently taking pre-orders for its Nintendo Switch 2 accessories, publicly shared the following response via X:
You may have seen that Nintendo recently filed a lawsuit against us. We’re taking it seriously and working with legal counsel to respond thoughtfully.
What we can say is this: Genki has always been an independent company focused on building innovative gaming accessories for the community we love. We’re proud of the work we’ve done, and we stand by the quality and originality of our products.
While we can’t comment in detail, we’re continuing preparations to fulfill orders and showcase our newest products at PAX East this week. We’re grateful for the overwhelming support we’ve received so far. We’ll share more when we can, but for now, we’re staying focused on doing what we do best: building gear for gamers.
The Nintendo Switch 2 will launch in exactly one month. You can read everything we know about it in our roundup article.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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