The Pokémon Company has filed a lawsuit against six Chinese companies a mobile game for “copyright infringement and unfair competition”. It is seeking over $72 million in damages and calling for public apologies on major social media platforms, gaming websites and app stores. The proposed apology tour will cover Sina.com, Tencent.com and NetEase.com, as well as major mobile app stores.
Originally reported by The South China Morning Post, Pocket Monster Reissue is a mobile game in which you collect non-Pokémon and battle them in a turn-based system featuring artwork with “resemblances” to popular characters from battle Pokemon franchises, like Ash Ketchum. Gameplay videos in Chinese video sites show that most of the trainable monsters are original designs, but a video with an unedited Clefable and Granbull. I also caught a glimpse of a character who appeared to be N Pokemon Black and White. my box has reached out to Nintendo for comment but has not received a response at the time of publication.
Pocket Monster Reissue has been active in major Chinese app stores since 2015, according to an IPO filing by one of the defendants, Jiangyin Zhongnan Heavy Industries Co. The game grossed over $4 million monthly in its first year, and the company’s profits have grown every year. Ever since the lawsuit was announced, the chanter and industrial pipe maker (I know!) has seen one 6 percent fall in the share price.
Pokemon has only recently started to officially enter the Chinese market. Pokemon sun and moon were the first games to receive an official Chinese port. Pokemon walk has been banned since 2017 due to road safety concerns, but this didn’t stop Chinese players from the search workarounds to play the game anyway. Even after decades without official game releases Pokemon is immensely popular in China. My own childhood summers were filled with fake trading cards and plastic toys, so it’s not surprising reissue made millions from the intellectual property every year.
my box reached out to Jiangyin Zhongnan Heavy Industries to ask if they expected Nintendo’s response when the game was originally released, but had not received a response at the time of release.
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Hopefully, Zhongnan Heavy Industries will stick with making metal pipes instead of video games.
