John Kirby, known for being an exceptional lawyer for the Nintendo company and inspiring the name of a beloved franchise has passed away. He was fighting a rare type of blood cancer called Myelodysplastic syndrome. He was 79 years old.
He was a lawyer not only for Nintendo but also for companies like Pepsi and America Online. One of his most famous cases was when Universal Studios sued Nintendo over the name Donkey Kong. He won that case for Nintendo and that allowed us to have more games in the Donkey Kong series made and kept it’s foothold in current culture.
He is survived by his wife of fifteen years, Susan Cullman, two brothers, Peter Kirby (Carol Kirby) and Michael Kirby (Margaret Kirby), two sisters, Lisa Greissing (Ed Greissing) and Cecelia Wrasse (Dennis Wrasse), two sons and two daughters, John Andrew Pickens Kirby (Daphne Pinkerson), Timothy James Kirby (Chelsey Kirby), Carolyn Sicher (Aaron Woolf), Perrin Patricia Lucia Kirby, as well as three grandchildren, Emma Rose Kirby, William Rose Kirby and Eloise Woolf, and many, many nieces and nephews.
