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A Broke Fan Owes $5,400 For Pokemon-Themed Party Posters

Posted by timothy on from the clueless-managers dept.

Jason Koebler writes: A fan has been ordered by a Washington judge to pay the Pokémon Company International $5,400 for copyright infringement after attempting to throw a Pokemon-themed party earlier this summer. Even though he canceled the free event, the Pokemon Company successfully sued Ramar Larkin Jones, for using an image of Pikachu to promote the Unofficial PAX Pokemon Kickoff Party.

9 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. If that's how Pokemon Int'l treats its fans... by ldobehardcore · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If that's how Pokemon Int'l treats its fans, I shudder to think of how they treat their enemies and competitors. What a fucking shitty thing to do. These people love Pokemon enough to have a big fun party kicking of PAX, and all Nintendo cares about is extracting it's fucking pound of flesh and in the process looking like a big, wobbly, flaccid dildo. In other words: Go fuck yourselves Nintendo, if you can't treat your fans well, then you deserve no fans. You bunch of litigious morons.

    --
    Hectice, baby, Mercator says hello to you
    1. Re:If that's how Pokemon Int'l treats its fans... by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ketchum's response should not be to wimp out by trying to GoFundMe the ransom. Blare the whole thing on social media, concentrating on Pokémon fan sites, with the aim of turning fans off as much as possible. So long as he doesn't make anything up, there is no possibility of additional suits for such activity (this isn't Britain!). Make them wish they had never tried to pull such a tactic.

    2. Re:If that's how Pokemon Int'l treats its fans... by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nintendo has a long history of treating its fans with contempt. Take for example how it issues DMCA notices to anybody who posts a video showing themselves playing their games. Honestly I stopped giving a shit about Nintendo after the SNES because as of the N64 and onward they basically gave the middle finger to both the developers and fans of third party titles of their systems. If they ever go belly up, I'd just say good riddance.

    3. Re:If that's how Pokemon Int'l treats its fans... by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hate to be a dick, but you DID charge admission using another company's IP.

      Whoever posted that is a dick. According to the Gofundme page, he only charged $2, which was intended to cover the cost of prizes for the cosplay contest. No huge profit involved.

      To the parent poster: you also are a dick, for posting this drivel, which misrepresents the situation.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    4. Re:If that's how Pokemon Int'l treats its fans... by The+Rizz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Defending your trademark" does not mean "suing anyone who doesn't pay you to use it". As long as there's no brand confusion being caused it doesn't need to be defended. As per the Wikipedia article: "It is not necessary for a trademark owner to take enforcement action against all infringement if it can be shown that the owner perceived the infringement to be minor and inconsequential."

      Arguably, you can even let infringement go in many larger instances as long as they're not believed to cause brand confusion. Look at Star Wars - George Lucas has allowed fan-made works to do a helluvalot that would get them sued by just about any other IP-based company out there. He's even commented on fan works, showing that he is quite aware of them. None of this permissiveness with his trademarks has ever led to him coming even close to losing the brand.

    5. Re:If that's how Pokemon Int'l treats its fans... by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It really doesn't matter. Once you start collecting money, the whole nature of the thing changes. If he wanted to pass the hat and beg for donations he could probably have got away with that, but actually charging admission is another thing. Having a pot for the costume contest prize would probably have been acceptable as well.

      The truth is that Nintendo has always aggressively defended their trademarks, often to the detriment of their fans, to the extent that it doesn't make sense to be one because why should you worship something which abuses you? Which reminds me of another subject... I guess you could say these people belong to the church of Mario. Suckers.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Marketing 101 by Ironlenny · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Don't sue your fans!

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    There is a system for subverting the system and you should use that system!
  3. Re:Is it a good game? by ruir · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What is it wrong with you? Boycott the bastards.

  4. Re:Business by ldobehardcore · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I know the law, and what you say is true. What I'm saying is that it's not particularly egregious and super fucking petty of Pokemon Int'l to sue for something so piddly, and it makes them look like pathetic money-grubbers who can't just sit back and enjoy their already massive popularity. It'd be better for them to just not fucking sue people and be liked, rather than sue people and make themselves look like acquisitive morons.

    --
    Hectice, baby, Mercator says hello to you