{"id":44413,"date":"2025-02-18T12:27:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T03:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=44413"},"modified":"2025-02-18T15:46:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T06:46:23","slug":"dragon-quest-novelist-loses-infringement-lawsuit-against-square-enix-toho-and-other-companies-involved-in-dragon-quest-your-story-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-quest-novelist-loses-infringement-lawsuit-against-square-enix-toho-and-other-companies-involved-in-dragon-quest-your-story-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon Quest novelist loses infringement lawsuit against Square Enix, Toho and other companies involved in Dragon Quest: Your Story movie\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Saori Kumi, author of the <strong>Dragon Quest V <\/strong>novel, has lost her legal battle with Square Enix, Toho and other companies on the production committee of the Dragon Quest: Your Story movie. Kumi originally filed the lawsuit in November 2020, seeking damages over the unauthorized use of \u201cLuca,\u201d the name of Dragon Quest V\u2019s protagonist.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Released in 2019, Dragon Quest: Your Story is an animated film adaptation of the JRPG<em> <\/em>Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, released for the SNES in 1992<em>. <\/em>However, while the protagonist was called simply \u201cHero\u201d in the original game (as is the norm throughout the Dragon Quest series), the movie used the name Luca instead. This name was originally introduced by Saori Kumi in her novelization of Dragon Quest V, published by Square Enix in 1993.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"931\" height=\"509\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 931px) 100vw, 931px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250218-44413-headerJPG.jpg\" alt=\"Dragon Quest 5\" class=\"wp-image-44415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250218-44413-headerJPG.jpg 931w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250218-44413-headerJPG-380x208.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250218-44413-headerJPG-768x420.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But Kumi wasn\u2019t informed of the name\u2019s use in the Dragon Quest: Your Story film nor credited for it. At the time, she directly requested an explanation from Square Enix, but was told that since the name was short and common, it was not subject to copyright (source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asahi.com\/articles\/ASNCT5483NCSUTIL019.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Asahi Shimbun<\/a>). After this, the author filed a lawsuit with the film\u2019s production committee, seeking a public apology and 2 million yen in damages (which was about $19k dollars at the time).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, on February 12, 2024, the Japanese Supreme Court dismissed Kumi\u2019s claims. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/note.com\/kumisaori\/n\/n04a9e658ef05\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">note<\/a> post by the author, \u201cthe court acknowledged that the act was plagiarism, but did not acknowledge that the plagiarism was illegal,\u201d i.e. the court\u2019s conclusion was that since the name is only used for identification purposes, it is not subject to copyright, meaning there was no infringement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u6620\u753b\u300e\u30c9\u30e9\u30b4\u30f3\u30af\u30a8\u30b9\u30c8\u3000YOUR STORY\u300f\u88fd\u4f5c\u9663\u306b\u5bfe\u3059\u308b\u8a34\u8a1f\u306f\u68c4\u5374\u3055\u308c\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\u5fdc\u63f4\u3042\u308a\u304c\u3068\u3046\u3054\u3056\u3044\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<br>\u6557\u8a34\u306f\u6b8b\u5ff5\u3067\u3059\u304c\u3001\u5f8c\u6094\u306f\u3057\u3066\u304a\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3002<br>\uff11\u3000\u30ea\u30e5\u30ab\u306e\u7121\u65ad\u4f7f\u7528\u306f\u8a8d\u3081\u3089\u308c\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<br>\uff12\u3000\u300e\u30ea\u30e5\u30ab\u57fa\u91d1\u300f\u3092\u7acb\u3061\u4e0a\u3052\u308b\u6c7a\u5fc3\u304c\u3064\u304d\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<br>\uff13\u3000\u7121\u65ad\u7d9a\u7de8\u306e\u5408\u6cd5\u53ef\u80fd\u6027\u304c\u793a\u3055\u308c\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<br>\uff081\/7\uff09<\/p>&mdash; \u304f\u307f\u3055\u304a\u308a (@kumisaori) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kumisaori\/status\/1891338878281466159?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 17, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite her case being dismissed, Kumi says that she doesn\u2019t regret suing. She adds that she was able to accomplish two of her goals \u2013 getting acknowledgement that Luca was an original name originating from her novel, and receiving an apology for its unauthorized use.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saori Kumi, author of the Dragon Quest V novel, has lost the legal battle over the unauthorized use of the name &#8220;Luca.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":44416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-44413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dragon Quest novelist loses infringement lawsuit against Square Enix, Toho and other companies involved in Dragon Quest: Your Story movie\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Saori Kumi, author of the Dragon Quest V novel, has lost the legal battle over the unauthorized use of the name &quot;Luca.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-quest-novelist-loses-infringement-lawsuit-against-square-enix-toho-and-other-companies-involved-in-dragon-quest-your-story-movie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dragon Quest novelist loses infringement lawsuit against Square Enix, Toho and other companies involved in Dragon Quest: Your Story movie\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Saori Kumi, author of the Dragon Quest V novel, has lost the legal battle over the unauthorized use of the name &quot;Luca.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-quest-novelist-loses-infringement-lawsuit-against-square-enix-toho-and-other-companies-involved-in-dragon-quest-your-story-movie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-18T03:27:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-18T06:46:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250218-44413-001.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1227\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dragon Quest novelist loses infringement lawsuit against Square Enix, Toho and other companies involved in Dragon Quest: Your Story movie\u00a0 - 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