 In this case, he defended Nintendo against litigation from Universal Studios in a dispute revolving around the video game "Donkey Kong", which Universal claimed to be an unlicensed used of the titular character from their film "King Kong".Kirby won the case, a landmark victory for Nintendo, by presenting evidence that Universal had previously won a legal battle against RKO that said the story and characters of "King Kong" were in the public domain; thus, Universal had no legal right to claim ownership of the characters and basic scenario (man rescuing a woman from a large ape) when the studio originally threatened legal action against Nintendo.For this defense, Kirby was considered to have "saved Nintendo" during its early growth into video games into the American market.