By Quinton Miles

Nintendo is making progress in its attempt to stop piracy as The U.S. District Court of Washington has put a restraining order against the import and sale of systems with counterfeit versions of their games being sold.

The items in question are products that are identical to Nintendo 64 controllers which plug directly into televisions similar to the [i]Plug and Play[/i] systems being sold. When connected, these controllers allow people to play dozens of illegal Nintendo games, such as the Classic NES series of games the company recently relaunched.

“This action is one of many steps Nintendo is taking to protect its creative rights and to combat the growing international problem of product piracy,” explains Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of America’s director of anti-piracy. “Nintendo won’t tolerate these illegal products, and is grateful to its devoted customers. We’ll aggressively protect the quality and integrity of the video game products our fans are so loyal to.”

To date, this is the largest problem Nintendo has had with piracy stateside. They are sure to lose millions of dollars in revenue, and is almost certain to harm its relationships with their established business partners.