The Pokémon Company is a Japanese company responsible for managing the globally recognized Pokémon franchise. Its properties include popular video games, trading card games, television shows, movies, merchandise, and much, much more. Founded in 1998, the Pokémon Company was formed as a collaboration between three companies: Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures. Nintendo provides the hardware for Pokémon videogames, like the Game Boy, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo Switch, and it holds most of the company’s overall stock. Game Freak is the main developer behind the majority of the Pokémon Company’s Pokémon video games, including the highly successful Pokémon Red and Blue and their successors. Finally, Creatures works on the development of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
The Pokémon Company is no stranger to the world of mobile games. Ever since its groundbreaking release in 2016, the mobile game Pokémon GO has made history in the world of AR games. At its highest player count, Pokémon GO had approximately 232 million active users. In November 2024, the estimated player count was 5.9 million, which is still considerable given the game’s expected decline.
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket (Pokémon TCG Pocket) is another Pokémon mobile game title. The game has amassed significant popularity since its release, attracting Pokémon fans and hardcore collectors from around the world. Pokémon TCG Pocket surpassed 10 million downloads worldwide within two days of its launch, and by November 8, 2024, downloads exceeded 30 million. It reached the number one free game position on both the App Store and Google Play Store shortly after its October launch, which put it ahead of previous iconic titles such as Roblox and Monopoly Go.
With the Pokémon Company leaving its mark in virtually every field of entertainment, it’s no surprise that other mobile games developers have attempted to profit off of their success. One mobile game that had allegedly copied from the Pokémon franchise, was a game called Pocket Monster: Remake, or The Pocket Journey. The alleged copycat game had been running since 2015, when it became available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
The Pokémon Company has reached a mediated settlement with the Pocket Monster: Remake operators. The company had previously filed a lawsuit against the game’s creators in China for alleged intellectual property rights infringement. The settlement involved game operators Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology Co., Ltd. and Khorgos Fangchi Network Technology Co., Ltd., both of which issued a public apology to the Pokémon Company. The apology, which has been translated to English following its release, admits to infringing on the franchise’s copyright system.
We have deeply realized that our acts had violated relevant laws during the second-instance trial and settlement process. The Game has extensively used design elements of the well-known Pokémon Video Game Series, infringing the copyrights related to the Pokémon Video Games, and has unfairly taken advantage of the fame and reputation of the Pokémon Video Games, thereby constituting acts of unfair competition. Our copyright infringement and acts of unfair competition have caused significant economic losses to the rights holders and severely damaged the image of the original Pokémon Video Games. We hereby sincerely apologize to TPC and other rights holders, as well as the vast number of players, consumers, and the general public.
In its own statement, the Pokémon Company concluded that they “will continue to take all necessary steps to protect its intellectual properties, to enable its users worldwide to enjoy all Pokémon contents with complete peace of mind.”