Over the years, Naruto has made itself a staple name in both manga and anime and it has been sitting as one of the most influential titles of its kind for decades already. The legacy of the title lives on through various ways as it remains one of the fan-favorites years after it ended. Recently, all eyes are on Naruto once more as TV Tokyo brought forward multiple lawsuits against merchandisers of counterfeit Naruto items and they won causing the online sellers to shut down.
TV Tokyo filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against several online merchants in the People's Republic of China and "other foreign jurisdictions" in a single complaint where they alleged that the merchandisers are selling counterfeit Naruto items who target the US as their market. The case was brought forth before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and as reported by Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP's website, a judgment has been released in favor of TV Tokyo. It was a default judgment order where none of the 301 listed defendants answered or appeared during the case.
The judgment further ruled for an order against the defendants to stop the use of Naruto trademarks which they aim to pass off as genuine products. Each defendant was ordered to pay $50,000 USD to TV Tokyo, and third-party platforms like Walmart and Amazon were asked to stop linking the accounts of those who sell the counterfeit items. The same report revealed that TV Tokyo filed other cases before the same court, 10 of which are won by the corporation, and 7 are still ongoing.
What is next for the Naruto franchise?
The Naruto franchise is an extensive collection of various TV anime shows, movies, and OVAs based on the manga series of the same name by Masashi Kishimoto. The manga series ran from 1999 to 2014 with chapters collected in 72 tankōbon volumes. The first part of the manga was brought to the small screens by Pierrot which ran from 2002 to 2007 then the Naruto Shippūden anime sequel series until 2017.
Currently, the future of the Naruto franchise is continued by the Boruto sequel manga which was the source of the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations anime series which ended its Part 1 in March 2023. The next thing of the franchise is the anime adaptation of Boruto Part 2: Two Blue Vortex which has recently been given a green light for production. While the fans wait for the anime, the manga series of Boruto: Two Blue Vortex has been out since August 2023 and is ongoing. New episodes of the original Naruto anime were supposed to release last September for the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the franchise but were delayed until further notice.
Boruto Part 2: Two Blue Vortex anime has no release date yet. Naruto, Naruto Shippūden, and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Part 1 are all available on Crunchyroll.
