The Pokémon Company announced on Feb. 19 its reaching of a mediated settlement with Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology and Khorgos Fangchi Network Technology, the Chinese developers of a mobile game that blatantly infringed intellectual property rights by using character and creature designs from the Pokémon franchise.
“Going forward, The Pokémon Company will continue to take all necessary steps to protect its intellectual properties, to enable its users worldwide to enjoy all Pokémon contents with complete peace of mind,” the company said.
The offending copycat, Pocket Monster: Remake, was released in 2015 on Apple’s App Store and various Android marketplaces in China and reportedly earned its creators over $40 million in revenue by 2016. The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against six companies behind the game’s creation and distribution in 2022, claiming over $72 million in damages and requesting a public apology. The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court ruled in favor of The Pokémon Company in September 2024 and ordered the defendants to pay $15 million, but Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology and Khorgos Fangchi Network Technology appealed the decision.
A follow-up hearing was held by the High People’s Court of Guangdong Province in December 2024, during which a settlement was reached and The Pokémon Company’s demand of a public apology was granted.
“We have deeply realized that our acts had violated relevant laws during the second-instance trial and settlement process,” Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology and Khorgos Fangchi Network Technology said in a joint statement. “[Pocket Monster: Remake] has extensively used design elements of the well-known Pokémon video game series, infringing the copyrights related to the Pokémon video games, and has unfairly taken advantage of the fame and reputation of the Pokémon video games, thereby constituting acts of unfair competition. Our copyright infringement and acts of unfair competition have caused significant economic losses to the rights holders and severely damaged the image of the original Pokémon video games. We hereby sincerely apologize to [The Pokémon Company] and other rights holders, as well as the vast number of players, consumers, and the general public.”
While the settlement’s exact figure wasn’t shared publicly, the Chinese companies also mention incurring “a substantial economic price” and “significant reputational damage” from the proceedings.
In other news, The Pokémon Company’s patent infringement case against Palworld developer Pocketpair is still ongoing. The open-world survival game made significant changes to the way its Pokémon-like Pals were summoned in a December 2024 update, which may have been in response to The Pokémon Company’s assertion that Palworld illegally mimicked patented Poké Ball mechanics. Speaking with Polygon in January 2025, Pocketpair global community manager John Buckley declined to discuss the lawsuit but said the developer would explain these changes to the playerbase in the future.
Source：https://www.polygon.com/news/527313/pokemon-company-lawsuit-settlement-china-pocket-monster-remake-public-apology
