Unfortunately, Japanese game companies do not seem to be particularly generous when it comes to fans hosting unofficial events related to their games, and that fact has once again been demonstrated by The Pokémon Company, which has filed a lawsuit against the organizers of PAX Prime for attempting to host the “5th Annual Unofficial Pokémon PAX Kickoff Party.”

The actual suit filed by the company goes into great detail about all of the many ways it uses Pokémon likenesses, including merchandise, a trading card game, a television series, and so on. The document even takes the time to describe the appearance and importance of both Pikachu and Snivy, two Pokemon used in promotional material for the PAX party.

The suit claims that the party organizers, specifically Ramar Larkin Jones and Zach Shore, illegally used the likenesses of Pikachu and Snivy in a promotional poster, and they also used “an infringing copy of Pikachu” in a Facebook post. Yes, apparently you can get sued for sharing a picture of Pikachu on Facebook. Who knew?

“Defendants have copied, created derivative works of, distributed copies to the public, and/or displayed publicly Pokémon Works without the consent or authority of [The Pokémon Company],” the suit states. “Defendants’ actions were and are intentional, willful, wanton, and performed in disregard of [The Pokémon Company’s] rights.”

The company is seeking statutory damages from the defendants, both for the recently planned party and for those that took place previously over the past four years. There does not seem to be any explanation for why the company waited five years before taking issue with the party. The suit also asks for attorney’s fees and the “destruction or other reasonable disposition of all copies found to have been made or used in violation of [The Pokémon Company’s]  exclusive rights, and of all plates, molds, matrices, masters, tapes, film negatives, or other articles by means of which such copies may be reproduced.”

As a result of the suit, the PAX party was cancelled, so let that be fair warning to anyone who wants to provide free publicity and positive PR for Pokémon: don’t.

Image created by Eric David | SiliconANGLE