Nintendo wins lawsuit against profitable copyright infringing Pokemon rip-off

In a rare instance of Nintendo very rightfully defending its IPs, the Japanese studio has won a copyright suit against six Chinese developers that were behind Pocket Monster Reissue. The game is also called Koudaiyaoguai Fuke.

As reported by GameBiz (translated by Automation), the suit has been ongoing since December 2021 when Nintendo finally caught wind of this Chinese knock-off. This game was caught plagiarizing and using assets without permission, including directly recreating the likes of Ash Ketchem and Pikachu.

The game was absurdly popular, netting the Chinese studio $42 million in a year. This suit had stipulations demanding a public apology.

Since then, one of the six parties have been ordered to pay 107 million Chinese yuan (or over $15 million) in damages. Three of the companies were ordered to bear joint liability, though, the trio have submitted an appeal.

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger Editor-in-Chief

Gabe has been a gamer since he was young, playing games like Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish, Guitar Hero, and whatever looked cool on GameFly. Ever since 2018, he's been infatuated with the inner workings of the gaming and entertainment industries, covering a wide range of topics from video games to TV and film. Starting as a contributor for PSX Extreme, he's worked his way up to its Managing Editor. Using what's he learned over the years, he founded Smash Jump to remind everyone to smash jump.