Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. and Square Enix Co., Ltd. (Square Enix), announced today the settlement of a federal lawsuit in the Central District of California against infringers of intellectual property belonging to Square Enix. The lawsuit named at least four national wholesalers of unlicensed sword replicas and their principals that have infringed Square Enix’s FINAL FANTASY(R) franchise of videogames and CG-animated film. This settlement follows previous out-of-court settlements against KingofSwords.com, Master Cutlery, Inc., SwordDemon.com and TrueSwords.com.

The settling Georgia-based defendants are Edgework Imports, Inc., Top Swords, Inc., and Wholesale Gallery, Inc, and their respective controlling owners. California-based Pacific Solutions Marketing, Inc. has entered into a separate settlement agreement.

While the complete terms of this settlement are being kept private, a consent judgment for $600,000 and injunctive relief has been publicly filed with the Court. The defendants have agreed to cease selling these items at wholesale and on eBay, Amazon.com and other Internet marketplaces.

"We will continue to actively pursue those who commit intellectual property infringement against our companies," said Yasuhiko Hasegawa, General Counsel for Square Enix Co., Ltd. "We appreciate the efforts of our fans in identifying those who seek to sell them cheap replicas that undermine our efforts to bring only top quality goods and content to our customers."

The current action is the first major U.S. anti-piracy lawsuit for Square Enix but will not be the last. Square Enix is stepping up its anti-piracy enforcement with aggressive initiatives against individuals and organizations involved in the theft and unauthorized use of the company’s intellectual properties. Square Enix will not tolerate the efforts of individuals and companies who misuse its intellectual property by selling counterfeit music, apparel, toys, or other merchandise.

Wait, here’s my favorite part of the story and I think the GDN ’duh’ moment of the month:

The defendants have each issued a statement as follows: "We regret having sold unauthorized replica merchandise based on the FINAL FANTASY franchise to our customers. We would not have begun importing and selling these swords if we knew that Square Enix would respond so aggressively to stop us. We will never make this mistake again."