The Pokémon Company has achieved a major victory in the fight against copycat games. The Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, recently made a first-instance ruling on the infringement case of Pokémon Company suing the mobile game "Pokemon: Replica", and ordered Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology Co., Ltd. to compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses for rights protection totaling 107 million yuan.

On December 3, 2021, The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against the operators of Pokemon: Remastered. The court of first instance found that the core elements such as the Pokémon characters, game protagonists, and maps in the accused game corresponded and were similar to the corresponding elements of the Pokémon Company's game, that the multiple element systems formed by the combination of game elements were highly similar or even identical, and that the design of multiple numerical systems was the same, so the specific storytelling expressions of the accused game and the Pokémon Company's game constituted substantial similarity, infringing the copyright of the Pokémon Company's game (including Article 10, Paragraph 1, Item 5 of the Copyright Law, The right of reproduction, the right of information network dissemination and the right of adaptation as provided for in Paragraphs 12 and 14).

At the same time, the operation and promotion of the accused game also violated Article 2 and Article 8, Paragraph 1 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, constituting acts of unfair competition.

The Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, ordered Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology Co., Ltd. to compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses for rights protection totaling RMB 107 million. Shenzhen Ascade Information Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Value Shang Interactive Technology Co., Ltd., and Horgos Fangchi Network Technology Co., Ltd. bear part of the joint and several liability.

At present, Guangzhou Maichi Network Technology Co., Ltd. and Horgos Fangchi Network Technology Co., Ltd. have appealed against the above-mentioned first-instance judgment, and Pokémon Company said that it will continue to defend its legitimate rights and interests as the goal, and fully prepare and actively respond to the relevant work of the second-instance procedure.

As a world-renowned game IP, Kemeng has always been the hardest hit area of infringement. Over the past few years, there have been a variety of copycat games that copy Pokémon elements on the market.

Some of these copycat games are used in a grand manner after simple modifications to the character image, and some are highly imitating the original Pokémon in terms of gameplay, map scenes, etc., trying to gain benefits with low-cost plagiarism. There are even some copycat games that directly use different translated names of Pokémon (such as "Pokemon", "Pokémon", etc.) to advertise themselves as genuine, using classic images and names from the original Pokémon, skill design, etc.

Infringement in the gaming industry is not unique, and many popular game IPs have experienced infringement in the past. For example, "Angry Birds", which was once a smash hit, has also appeared in many copycat games that imitate its gameplay and character image.

These copycat games take advantage of the popularity and popularity of the original game to attract players to download, which not only harms the interests of the original game developer, but also undermines the level playing field in the game market.

For the Pokémon Company, this victory is not only to obtain financial compensation, but more importantly, to maintain the dignity of its brand image and intellectual property. Cracking down on infringement through legal means conveys to the market the determination of the Pokémon Company to resolutely defend its own rights and interests, and also provides a solid guarantee for its subsequent development and innovation.

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