Pokémon Company Sues Australian Firm Over NFT Game: Details

The incident was triggered after Kotiota Studios started promoting an NFT game, based on Pokémon characters.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 22 December 2022 16:13 IST

Pokémon Company Sues Australian Firm Over NFT Game: Details

Photo Credit: Pokemon

The Pokémon Company International owns all the rights to Pokémon

Highlights

The first hearing of the case reportedly was slated for December 21
Nobody from Kotiota Studios showed up for the hearing
The Pokémon Company doesn't wish to link characters to unofficial project

The Pokémon Company International is taking legal action against Kotiota Studios for releasing NFT games and Web3 projects revolving around the famous cartoon characters. The incident was triggered after Kotiota Studios started promoting an NFT game based on Pokémon characters. Kotiota Studios is the parent firm of Pokémon Pty Ltd, the platform behind the NFT game. Official legal documents filed by the Pokémon Company International confirm the development.

The Pokémon Company International has claimed that Kotiota Studios, while not being an officially appointed contractor, has been linked to other related games such as Pokémon Scarlet and Violet as well as Pokémon Home. Its latest game offering is named PokéWorld.

“Applicant seeks to restrain respondents and related entities from representing licence to develop Pokémon Games or affiliation with Pokémon Company International, Inc and/or the Pokémon brand — where applicant seeks to restrain the respondent from using any name or word which is misleading,” the legal filing by the Pokémon Company International said.

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The Pokémon franchise, that shows fantasy animal characters with superpowers, was created by Japanese animator Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. The franchise is currently managed by the Pokémon company and enjoys a cult following around the world.

The company has specified that no official NFTs around Pokémon characters have been released so far.

The Pokémon Company International owns the rights to Pokémon that makes their court case compelling.

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The first hearing over this case was scheduled for December 21. As per Vooks.net, representatives from the Pokémon company showed up, but nobody from Kotiota Studios did. For now, the details of this case's proceedings remain unclear.

NFTs or non-fungible tokens are digital collectibles, built on blockchain networks. Susceptible to price fluctuations, purchasing unofficial NFTs can expose buyers to scams or even bigger financial risks.

Back in August, Justin Bieber, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and Paris Hilton were named among 19 celebrities who were warned against promoting NFT projects without revealing their associations with the projects.

The Truth in Advertising (TINA.org) had reached out to the celebrities asking for clarifications on their NFT associations.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, Pokemon, Kotiota Studios, NFT

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More