The Pokemon Company just shut down a pre-PAX Pokemon themed party due to copyright infringement.
It is well known that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are pretty protective of their intellectual properties. They are one of the biggest users of the copyright system on Youtube, having shut down many videos and articles that included any of their media even if they stood in a legal grey area, and have even created their own partner system for Youtube which has not acquired much fame.
However, shutting down a pre-PAX Pokemon themed party might be a little too extreme, especially for The Pokemon Company. They filed a lawsuit against two Seattle residents, Ramar Larking Jones and Zach Shore, for attempting to organize the “5th Annual Unofficial Pokemon PAX Kickoff Party”. In other words, The Pokemon Company went through the trouble of filing a lawsuit against two Seattle residents for a pre-PAX Pokemon themed party. A party. A party in their honor. Insane.
The company blamed Jones and Shore for the inclusion of Pokemon-themed drinks, posters, and the inclusion of Pokemon images in the official Facebook page for the event, thus accusing them of copyright infringement. The goal of the lawsuit is to set a precedent for any future ruffians who may want to set up a Pokemon party without The Pokemon Company‘s consent. However, instead of creating permits or some other legal hole, the aim of the lawsuit is simply to shut down any future parties by these individuals.
The strangest thing is that these people already hosted four previous pre-Pax Pokemon themed party adventures and nobody batted an eye, so clearly the harm couldn’t have been that big. Either way, if you guys missed the previous parties you’re straight out of luck because there will be no more such shindigs in the future. Perhaps not only in the Seattle area but, if this kind of street-level party is catching The Pokemon Company’s eye, in the world.
