[Update] Pokemon TCG Pocket Accused Of Using Uncredited Fanart In New Expansion

[Update] Pokemon TCG Pocket Accused Of Using Uncredited Fanart In New Expansion

Comments 0 Comment

Some new accusations have surfaced against the Pokemon Company tracing fanart for the upcoming Pokemon TCG Pocket expansion.

The expansion Wisdom of Sea and Sky includes a new immersive art card for the Legendary Pokemon Ho-oh, and features artwork that many believe is traced from a piece of fanart. The affected artist goes by lanjiujiu on social media, and created the artwork back in 2021 as a commission for a model making company. Overlapping the two images shows that the card and 2021 art piece share many similarities in terms of pose and composition, making it hard to believe that its just a coincidence.

That said, it appears that even if the artwork is indeed traced, the Pokemon Company has already taken steps to ensure they are legally protected. According to their legal page, The Pokemon Company won’t go after fan-artists for using their intellectual property without permission, but in exchange reserves the right to use those same fanworks in their own media without needing to credit or pay the artists.

“Distribution in any form and any channels now known or in the future of derivative works based on the copyrighted property trademarks, service marks, trade names and other proprietary property (Fan Art) of The Pokémon Company International, Inc., its affiliates and licensors (Pokémon) constitutes a royalty-free, non-exclusive, irrevocable, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license from the Fan Art’s creator to Pokémon to use, transmit, copy, modify, and display Fan Art (and its derivatives) for any purpose.”

At the time of this writing, The Pokemon Company has yet to make any official statements addressing these allegations. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

[UPDATE]: The Pokemon Company has issued a statement confirming issues with the card art, and the artwork for both the Ho-oh EX card and the Lugia EX card will be replaced.

Notice Regarding New Illustrations
Thank you for your continued support and passion for Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket.

We want to share an important update regarding the upcoming expansion, Wisdom of Sea and Sky. It has come to our attention that there was a production issue regarding the illustration of Ho-Oh featured in the immersive card artwork for Ho-Oh EX (3-Star) and Lugia EX (3-Star).

After internal review, we discovered that the card production team provided incorrect reference materials as official documents to the illustrator commissioned to create these cards. As a result, both cards have been replaced with a temporary placeholder that the team is actively working to replace with new artwork as soon as it’s ready. We are also conducting a broader investigation to ensure no similar issues exist elsewhere in the game.

To all our players who have been looking forward to this expansion, and to the talented illustrators who bring the Pokémon world to life, we deeply apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. We take this matter very seriously and are committed to strengthening our quality control processes to prevent this from happening again.

Thank you for your understanding, patience, and continued support of Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket. We remain dedicated to delivering an experience that you can enjoy.

Source:
Via 1, Via 2