Pokémon wins £11,000,000 million lawsuit against copycat game

17 Sep

Pokémon wins £11,000,000 million lawsuit against copycat game

A shocked Pikachu walking down the street in the Detective Pikachu movie. — The Pokémon Company will come after you if you copy them (The Pokémon Company)

The Pokémon Company is set to receive millions in damages but you’ll be surprised at which games exactly have been targeted.

At the start of the year, Palworld launched to mixed reviews but a rapturous reception from players, as it looked like it was going to take over the gaming world, selling over five million copies in just three days.

Its popularity eventually plateaued at a much lower level, but it also sparked controversy with its similarity to Pokémon, and The Pokémon Company even issued a statement saying it would investigate if Palworld infringed on its intellectual property rights.

Nine months later and there have been no lawsuits between the two, but in the meantime The Pokémon Company has reportedly won $15 million (£11.4 million) in a case against six Chinese companies.

The lawsuit was filed back in 2021, against the companies that helped develop and publish the game Pocket Monster Reissue.

Pocket Monster Reissue is a turn-based mobile game that was first released in 2015, and was accused of plagiarising characters such as Ash Ketchum and Pikachu.

The Pokémon Company announced today that it had won the legal battle, and that the six companies were found to have infringed on its copyright and violated the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.

Although The Pokémon Company won $15 million from the lawsuit, in its filing with the Intermediate People’s Court in Shenzhen, according to South China Morning Post, it originally claimed damages worth $72.5 million (£55.1m).

In the ruling, only one company was ordered to pay the $15 million, while three others are to bear joint liability for a portion of the damages.

The two remaining companies have filed an appeal with the court.

It appears that it might’ve all been worth it for the copycats, at least monetary, as a year after its release, Pocket Monster Reissue had made $43 million (£32.7m) in total revenue alone.

Not only is the name Pocket Monster an exact copy, but based on marketing material it was always going to be hard to argue against The Pokémon Company’s claim. As you can see from the images below.