Pokémon is one of the biggest media franchises of all time. They have a back catalogue of games, movies, T.V series and Card Game sets over a 25 year period. The world has been going Pokémon crazy since the lockdown period and it has now gotten the limelight in the world of blockchain gaming.
Sadly this believed series has been in the headlines recently for all the wrong reasons. A company residing in Australia has been sued by the Pokémon Company International over copyright claims. They have gone ahead and created a clone of sorts that uses the official Pokémon logo and names.
This case is so serious, TPCI has taken this case to the Federal Court of Australia.
Let’s look deeper into this recent controversy.
@ Gamedaim
The company from Australia posing as a direct derivative of the Pokémon Company International. Their name is Pokémon Pty Ltd, covering themselves deeper as they call themselves Kotiata Studios.
I’m unsure that the added list of names is going to do for them but anything to cover your tracks I suppose.
To paint the scene we’ll go over the game itself.
Based on the Ethereum blockchain list, this game was NFT themed on Pokémon. Players can choose between Pikachu, Eevee and Charmander as their starters. Its official name is “Pokeworld”.
You then battle it out in single player modes or in clans with your friends and other players. Collecting both in-game resources including food, clothes, amulets. There is also a native token, called $POKESHARD. All items were also available as mintable NFTs on the NFT marketplace.
Judging from the gameplay found on the site promoting this project, it is somewhat of an insult towards Pokemon. Using their branding, character designs and name is not a good move from this Aussie company.
To learn more about this scam, you can visit their official site. Here you will find deeper explanations and a proposed whitepaper. Surprisingly enough the website is still active despite the recent turn of events.
The Pokémon Company have had this to say:
“The PokeWorld Website advertises a new game “brought to you by The Pokémon Company International and Kotiota“. I understand that Kotiota Studios (Kotiota) is an entity related to the respondents in their business endeavour the subject of these proceedings. On that website, there is a section titled “2022-2023 ROADMAP” which appears to outline the timeline for the launch of PokeWorld and release of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) related to Pokémon characters. A review of that web page indicates that the PokeWorld game will launch in January 2023.”
Kotiata Studios garnished the attention of the Pokémon Company through their aggressive PR attempt. Contacting different media outlets to push their project into the eyes of gamers was a huge mistake and instantly backfired as representatives from TPCI instantly were made aware.
It has also come out that Kotiata Studios have claimed to be in close relations with Pokémon! As though using media outlets wasn’t enough for their press, they are also saying that they have had their hand in developing recent Pokemon related projects. These Include Scarlet, Violet and Pokémon Home.
This simply isn’t true!
Despite the PokeWorld game being released this year, the website was set up back in 2016 by the founders. A calculated move by Pokémon Pty Ltd if we have seen one, however not one they anticipated with the current turn of events.
December the 19th was the first time that the court had heard about this affair from the Pokémon Company International. The 21st of December then followed swiftly which is when the first hearing was held.
No one from Kotiata Studios was said to have turned up to represent them in court. The actual Pokémon Company has a strong case against them. The opposition not turning up to court furthers helps their case.
It’s unclear what was going through Kotiata Studios’ head however we applaud them for the effort.
LOL
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