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WeeWorld and Nintendo
An open letter to WeeWorld users from Celia Francis, CEO
March 26, 2007
Hello WeeWorlders –
Most people on the WeeWorld staff start each morning reading the stack of user feedback emails that we got the day before. It really keeps us in the loop on what you want so we know what to build next. It's also great to hear from so many Weeworld fans – we do appreciate the love.
In the past few days, buzz in the video game blogs has centered on WeeMees and the cartoon Miis you can create on Nintendo's Wii. With a few user feedback questions on the topic starting to come in, I think it’s important to update the WeeWorld community on where things stand.
We filed a trademark infringement suit against Nintendo in November 2006. Don’t get me wrong, we love Zelda and Mario, but we need to protect our trademark and the global WeeMee community. We had to file suit in the United States first because that is where Nintendo first launched the Wii. As the suit has progressed, and given our limited resources, it’s become clear that the best way to protect our site and our trademarks is to take it to the European courts (WeeWorld is based in both the United States and Europe). So we filed a motion to dismiss the suit in the U.S. courts "without prejudice." That simply means we are free to re-file the suit in the United States at a later date, if necessary.
I would also like to set the record straight on some key facts:
- The first WeeMee was born in the United States in September 2002.
- A new WeeMee is born every 3 seconds and 700,000 new WeeMees are created each month.
- About 15 million people have created at least one WeeMee that they use on Windows Live Messenger, Skype, Friends Reunited (UK), AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Jamba and on Weeworld.com, of course.
- WeeMees can travel with you to all the most popular sites including MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Xanga, and Blogger, as well as your instant messaging systems, email accounts, mobile phones, etc.
A decision is due on our motion to dismiss the U.S. suit in early April, and we'll keep you posted.
In the meantime, we hope you're enjoying the new stuff we launched like the kimonos, marshmallow pets, orange slices and sledgehammers. As for me, I’m spending WAY too much time playing with the new colors that you asked for!
More soon,
Celia
We love hearing from you so feel free to leave me comments on my WeeWorld home page or send in your user feedback.