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Public record
3 court cases verified from a published opinion or a party's own notice, 1999 to 2024
Cases involving Nintendo, The Pokémon Company or its licensees where a court opinion or a party notice was read; no case is listed from press reports alone.
Index
One United States appeal, one Chinese judgment, one Japanese filing
| Case | Court | Dates | Outcome in one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chaset v. Fleer/Skybox, 300 F.3d 1083 | United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit | Argued and submitted 5 Dec 2001; opinion filed 20 Aug 2002 | Affirmed. |
| Pokémon Company v. Guangzhou Maichi (Shenzhen, 2024) | Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court | Filed 3 Dec 2021; judgment 12 Jul 2024 | Judgment for the plaintiff on 12 Jul 2024: 107 million yuan in damages, the full sum against Guangzhou Maichi with the other three companies bearing part of it jointly. |
| Nintendo and Pokémon Company v. Pocketpair (Tokyo, 2024) | Tokyo District Court | Filed 18 Sep 2024; announced 19 Sep 2024 | Pending at the read date as far as the plaintiffs' site shows. |
Individuals who sued or were sued are described by role, never named. Companies are named as the documents name them.
Case
Chaset v. Fleer/Skybox, 300 F.3d 1083
| Full name | Chaset v. Fleer/Skybox International (consolidated appeals, including the Pokémon trading card action against Nintendo of America, Wizards of the Coast and 4Kids Entertainment) |
|---|---|
| Court | United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, on appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California |
| Docket | Nos. 00-56251, 00-56253, 00-56255, 00-56256, 00-56260, 00-56261, 00-56263 and 00-56266; the Pokémon action is No. 00-56266 |
| Citation | 300 F.3d 1083 (9th Cir. 2002) |
| Dates | Argued and submitted 5 Dec 2001; opinion filed 20 Aug 2002 |
| Parties | Plaintiffs: a group of consumers, several of them minors acting through guardians, who bought trading cards. Defendants in the Pokémon action: Nintendo of America, Inc., Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. Other consolidated actions named sports card makers and licensors. |
| Claims | Civil RICO claims alleging that the random insertion of chase cards in sealed packs amounted to illegal gambling, with supplemental state-law claims. |
| Outcome | Affirmed. The district court had dismissed the RICO claims without leave to amend and the state-law claims without prejudice. The court of appeals held that buyers of trading cards who do not receive an insert card have not suffered an injury the RICO statute recognises. |
Case
Pokémon Company v. Guangzhou Maichi (Shenzhen, 2024)
| Full name | The Pokémon Company v. Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology and three other companies |
|---|---|
| Court | Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, Guangdong Province, China |
| Docket | Case number not stated in the plaintiff's notice |
| Dates | Filed 3 Dec 2021; judgment 12 Jul 2024 |
| Parties | Plaintiff: The Pokémon Company. Defendants: Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology Co., Ltd.; Shenzhen Asikade Information Technology Co., Ltd.; Shenzhen Zhishanghudong Technology Co., Ltd.; Khorgos Fangchi Network Technology Co., Ltd. |
| Claims | Copyright infringement in the Pokémon video game series and unfair competition, over the mobile game published as 口袋妖怪：复刻 (also 口袋之旅). |
| Outcome | Judgment for the plaintiff on 12 Jul 2024: 107 million yuan in damages, the full sum against Guangzhou Maichi with the other three companies bearing part of it jointly. The plaintiff's notice of 13 Sep 2024 says two defendants had appealed. Later steps were not verified on this pass. |
Case
Nintendo and Pokémon Company v. Pocketpair (Tokyo, 2024)
| Full name | Nintendo Co., Ltd. and The Pokémon Company v. Pocketpair, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Court | Tokyo District Court, Japan |
| Docket | Case number not stated in the plaintiffs' release |
| Dates | Filed 18 Sep 2024; announced 19 Sep 2024 |
| Parties | Plaintiffs: Nintendo Co., Ltd. and The Pokémon Company. Defendant: Pocketpair, Inc., developer of Palworld. |
| Claims | Infringement of multiple patent rights by the game Palworld, per the plaintiffs' release. The release does not list the patents. |
| Outcome | Pending at the read date as far as the plaintiffs' site shows. The relief sought is an injunction and compensation for damages. No judgment was verified on this pass. |
Dropped
Five cases were left out because no court record could be opened
Two Western District of Washington judgments from 2016, a Northern District of California settlement from 2021, a Central District of California filing from 2000 and a 2003 Western District of Washington contract case are reported in the press, but their dockets sit behind access limits that this pass could not get past. They return when a court document has been read.