The Pokémon Company announced on February 19 that it has reached mediated settlement in a copyright infringement lawsuit pertaining to the Chinese mobile game Pocket Monster: Remake. This comes after an update in September, when the company revealed that it had won a court ruling in its favor. At the time, two of the companies ordered to compensate The Pokémon Company had filed appeals against the ruling, but it seems the case has finally been settled.
The lawsuit was initially filed back in December 2021 against multiple companies involved in developing and publishing Pocket Monster: Remake, aka The Pocket Journey (in our previous report, we erroneously referred to the game as “Pocket Monster Reissue”). First released in 2015, this turn-based mobile game featured character and creature designs that quite blatantly copied the Pokémon series, including iconic poster characters like Ash Ketchum and Pikachu.
With the offending game having made upwards of $42 million in revenue in a single year, The Pokémon Company originally claimed an estimated $72 million in damages and demanded public apologies from the companies involved across all major social media platforms.
The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court ruled in favor of The Pokémon Company in September, accusing the defendants of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act and ordering them to pay 107 million yuan (around $15 million USD). However, two of the companies involved (Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology and Khorgos Fangchi Network Technology) filed an appeal to overturn the ruling.
On December 18, a second hearing was held, where the parties involved reached a mediated settlement regarding compensation (which Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology describes as “a huge sum”). In addition, the companies were ordered to issue apology statements through online and paper news outlets in China.
