In Brief
The Pokémon Company is suing an Australian company Kotiota Studios for launching an NFT game based on fictional creatures.
On its website, Kotiota Studios’ PokeWorld play-to-earn game claims to be a subdivision of The Pokémon Company.
The Trust Project is a worldwide group of news organizations working to establish transparency standards.
According to documents filed in the Federal Court of Australia, The Pokémon Company is suing a company called Pokémon Pty Ltd over an NFT-based game featuring the popular fictional creatures. Pokémon Pty Ltd is an Australian company that is unrelated to the original Pokémon Company. Under the name Kotiota Studios, the Australian firm advertised a website claiming to launch an NFT game called PokéWorld.
Making matters worse, Pokémon Pty Ltd allegedly claimed to have worked with The Pokémon Company before on other games such as Pokémon Home, the recently released Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and the unreleased Pokémon Sleep.
The PokéWorld website is still up and running, but The Pokémon Company has asked the court to intervene and prevent Pokémon Pty Ltd from using its trademarks on websites and social media, effectively blocking the game’s launch.
The counsel of The Pokémon Company and Nintendo have agreed beforehand not to launch any Pokémon NFTs.
The Pokémon Company first realized the fraud when Kotiota Studios reached out to several media websites trying to hype the game. On December 19, Pokémon creators filed an application with the court, with the first hearing scheduled for December 21. On the day of the hearing, the legal counsel for The Pokémon Company showed up, while nobody from Kotiota Studios did.
For now, the court agrees that The Pokémon Company has a strong case, although it asked for more information before considering costs or damages. If Kotiota Studios continues to ignore the matter, further legal actions could be taken.
It’s no surprise to see plagiarized work and many other types of fraud in the web3 space, as the market is highly unregulated.
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