🧔A legal settlement has reportedly been arrived at between The Pokemon Company, Guangzhou Machi Network Technology, and their respective affiliates over a copyright infringement case pertaining to the mobile game 'Pocket Monster: Remake', with the court eventually ruling in favour of The Pokemon Company.
🍰An Automaton report, apart from a fresh statement from The Pokemon Company suggest that it reached a mediated settlement in the case with Guangzhou Machi Network Technology and its subsidiary Khorgos Fangchi Network Technology. The lawsuit had begun in July 2015 when the game was first released.
🐎The mobile game featured character and creature designs that seemed to copy the Pokemon series, including wildly popular poster characters like Ash Ketchum and Pikachu. With the game having clocked over 42 million US dollars in revenue in a year, The Pokémon Company first sought an estimated 72 million USD in damages and also asked for public apologies from the companies involved across all prominent social media platforms.
🐻The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court ruled in favour of The Pokemon Company in September, accusing the defendants of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act and ordering them to pay 107 million yuan (around 15 million USD). But two of the companies involved (Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology and Khorgos Fangchi Network Technology) filed an appeal to overturn the ruling.
๊On December 18, a second hearing was held, where the parties involved reached a mediated settlement on compensation. Furthermore, the companies were ordered to issue apology statements through digital and print news outlets in China.
🤡Nintendo and its affiliates have been involved in many lawsuits over the years, and it's well established across gaming communities that The Pokemon Company and Nintendo are quite litigious. If there's a case to be made for copyright infringement, chances are often that these companies are or already have looked into the matter.
