Japanese game maker Nintendo says it has won one of its "most significant antipiracy judgments ever" against a Hong Kong company that sold devices capable of copying its games and putting them on the Net for limitless downloading. In the recent ruling, a Hong Kong judge ordered Lik-Sang International to pay an interim amount of $641,000 (5 million Hong Kong dollars) in damages, Nintendo said Thursday. A Lik-Sang representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

Kyoto-based Nintendo had sought $20 million in damages in its original complaint for lost revenue in 2001 and 2002, in a case that underscored the problem of rampant software piracy in China and adjacent Hong Kong.

After the Hong Kong ruling, Nintendo said it believes the cheap copying devices, which were manufactured in China, are no longer on the market, Daugherty said.