Microsoft thought they owned Donkey Kong

[Mr Khan]

Well, there was a lot of doubt at the time. I seem to remember the prevailing belief for a long time being that Diddy, Cranky, Dixie, King K. Rool, et al were all Microsoft's property, and that they could freely make Kong Country games or at least prevent Nintendo from using any of those characters ever again (it wasn't, i think, until Mario Power Tennis that Diddy Kong appeared in a Nintendo game after the acquisition, after all)