While not often in the news, Nintendo has a dedicated anti-piracy division that cracks down on unauthorized use of the company’s properties.
The anti-piracy unit keeps a close eye on Internet piracy and the sale of hacked and counterfeit products which endanger the company’s revenues.
However, there’s also a threat of a whole different kind: baked goods. A few months ago Nintendo spotted a surge of copyright-infringing cookies which were illicitly manufactured in China.
Fearing that the ingredients posed a risk to the health of gaming fans, the company decided to take swift action.
“After receiving a report of cookies being manufactured in China featuring Nintendo’s copyrighted characters, Nintendo took steps to protect consumers,” Nintendo announces in its quarterly update.
The gaming company took its health concerns to the Chinese manufacturer and requested a halt to the baking process as soon as possible.
“Out of concern that unauthorized cookies could pose possible health and safety issues to consumers, Nintendo contacted the manufacturer to immediately cease manufacturing and distributing the unauthorized cookies,” the company explains.
This effort was successful and Nintendo reports that the manufacturer stopped producing the copyright infringing cookies, making the world a safer place for gaming fans.
In addition to crushing the pirated cookies, the company also seized more than a thousand counterfeit Super Mario products in Asia.
This includes the phone cover and backpack pictured on the right.
“Nintendo of Korea provided vital support in a seizure of more than 1,400 pieces of counterfeit Super Mario merchandise at Incheon Customs in [the first quarter of] 2015,” Nintendo reports.
It’s unclear whether the counterfeit goods were also health hazards, or if they were seized to protect Nintendo’s revenues instead.
TF contacted Nintendo for more details on the exact health threats the cookies posed, as well as other anti-piracy efforts, but the company did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
