Hiroyuki Wins in 2-chan Lawsuit, but Why Many on the Internet Are Not So Cool About It

Businessman Hiroyuki Nishimura, a.k.a. Hiroyuki “Hiroyuki” Nishimura, has won a lawsuit against the giant Internet bulletin board “2channel”.

Hiroyuki is the former administrator of the giant Internet bulletin board “2channel. The stage for this lawsuit is 2channel, and he has filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction against the use of the name “2channel” and compensation for damages, claiming that “Race Queen,” a corporation to which he had outsourced his administrative duties, had taken over the bulletin board and infringed on his trademark rights.

In an appeal decision on January 26, the Intellectual Property High Court upheld the injunction and ordered Race Queen to pay ¥217 million in damages, changing the Tokyo District Court decision that rejected the claim for damages.

Specifically, the court ruled that the company was negligent in excluding Hiroyuki from the operation and using his name without his permission, and concluded that Nishimura incurred damages of 5 million yen per month from February ’14 to September ’17, when he lost advertising revenue.

The first trial court decision in September ’19 found that the company had been in charge of operating the BBS with another corporation since 2004, and that it had taken over the operation business in ’12. The court rejected Nishimura’s claim for damages on the grounds that he had been using the name “2channel” since before he applied for the trademark in 2001, and that there had been no trademark infringement.

He responded to this news. On Twitter, he took to Twitter to declare his victory.

It took 9 years for the court decision to come out after 2channel was hijacked, so the hijacker actually won, right?

He then posted on Twitter, “It took 9 years for the court decision to come out after the takeover of 2chan.

The netizens, with a few exceptions, did not say, “Quite right, Hiroyuki! was not the case. The underlying reason is that Hiroyuki himself is suspected of having “defaulted” on a huge claim for damages in the past.

In the aforementioned judgment in which he won the case, the following is also mentioned.

“He didn’t pay the compensation, but instead filed a lawsuit for damages himself?
It was stupid for the company to be taken over in the first place.
“He’s a moron for taking over the company in the first place.

The opinions of the public were varied, including “Hiroyuki, you’ve never done anything wrong.

Hiroyuki has explained the “overdraft allegation” many times in the past. According to him, the Provider Liability Limitation Law, which came into effect in 2001, means that even if a defamatory post is made, the site administrator is not liable if he or she does not know about it. There have been lawsuits filed before that law came into effect, but they have not paid because there is no law that says ‘you have to pay. However, there are critics of this explanation who say, ‘Isn’t that a quibble?'” (sports newspaper reporter)

A legal expert commented on the high court’s decision, “I have not read the entire judgment.

I have not read the entire judgment, but the main point is that the part that says ‘there was no trademark infringement’ was overturned and Hiroyuki’s right of prior use was recognized. On the other hand, Hiroyuki moved to recover the domain name of “2channel,” but this was not approved.

In that sense, I am not sure if “hijacking” is the right word. It is also unclear whether Race Queen would be willing to pay over 200 million yen for the domain.

The company’s response to the payment of more than 200 million yen may not be so straightforward,” he said.

Although Hiroyuki now has many supporters, the public may be casting a cold eye toward him when it comes to “2channel.