EigoMANGA Claims Vanguard Princess IP, While Original Creator Stays Silent
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- EigoMANGA is claiming that it has the full IP rights to Vanguard Princess across the US and Japan.
- However, the actual creator of Vanguard Princess is Tomoaki Sugeno.
- Vanguard Princess was released as a free game in Japan in 2009.
US publisher eigoMANGA’s claim to the Vanguard Princess IP has been called into question by Game*Spark, which wrote an article in Japanese doubting eigoMANGA’s position; however, a report from Automaton has translated vital information from Game*Spark’s article.
On May 21, eigoMANGA published a press release saying that it owns the full IP rights to Vanguard Princess across the US and Japan. “EigoMANGA has officially registered the Vanguard Princess trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) under Registration Number 7,791,666, covering computer and mobile game software,” the statement reads.
Vanguard Princess is a fighting game made by Tomoaki Sugeno and released as a free game in 2009. Three years later, eigoMANGA released the game in English and put a price on it. However, Game*Spark found this suspicious, as Sugeno never mentioned an English version of the game on his blog.
EigoMANGA’s public request to seek the contact information of Vanguard Princess’ copyright holder, which would be Sugeno, adds to the dubiousness of the situation, as it directly contradicts a comment it made in a thread on Steam, where the company said it has a “working relationship” with Sugeno.
The US publisher mentioned that its ownership of Vanguard Princess has been established through “rulings by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.” However, Automaton reported that while Japan’s copyright arbitration system allows people to use copyrighted works as long as they have direct permission from the owner, obtain a ruling from the Agency of Cultural Affairs, and deposit a usage fee, it does not transfer the rights of the IP to that person.
