Being the highest grossing media franchise in the world, the Pokemon series has seen numerous knock-offs and copycat titles being released into the wild, each trying to capitalize on the brand recognition for exposure and profit.

It is no secret that one major source of copycat games is the Chinese mobile games market, which is home to many games that blatantly use Pokemon creatures, characters, and branding without any official ties to the company.

Now, Pokemon has scored a major win against these developers. As reported by Automatob media, TPC has won a $15 million dollar lawsuit against several Chinese companies for copyright infringement and intellectual property theft. The lawsuit was originally filed back in 2021 against six companies for developing and distributing a game called Pocket Monster Reissue, which ” blatantly plagiarized” many characters from Pokemon, including Pikachu, Ash Ketchum, and many other popular monsters.

Following its release in 2015, Pocket Monster Reissue reportedly earned over $42 million in one year, with the Pokemon Company initially claiming the damages totaled about $72 million and demanding a public apology from the companies involved. So far, only one out of the six has been ordered to pay the damages (the aforementioned $15 million), with three others filing for appeals.

The success of this lawsuit may embolden The Pokemon Company to take more action against knock-off games on mobile platforms, of which Pocket Monster Reissues is but one of many. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.

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