The Pokémon Company is suing Aussie crypto firm Pokémon Pty Ltd over their new NFT-based game PokéWorld, to be released in 2023.
Aussie-based crypto firm Pokémon Pty Ltd have found themselves in hot water with The Pokémon Company over their new NFT game PokéWorld. As reported by Vooks, TPCi – famous for the strict protection of their products, releases, and IPs – is suing the crypto company over the game, which was set to be released by the latter under the name Kotiota Studios.
In addition to using their characters and products, the brand is also coming after the firm for allegedly claiming credit for developing a lot of their recent properties, such as from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Pokémon Home, and the unreleased Pokémon Sleep.
In the legal documents submitted, TPCi claims that they have never contracted the firm for any projects, including the NFT-based game they are set to release – they only learned of its existence when Kotiota started reaching out to media outlets to gain exposure for the release of the game.
As of now, TPCi is asking that the firm stop using any of their trademarks on their website and social media, as well as seeking to stop the launch of the game or the sale of any NFTs through it.
Clarifying that TPCi and Nintendo had always made a ‘deliberate’ decision to not launch any NFT-based products, a statement from the company said: “The PokeWorld Website advertises a new game ‘brought to you by The Pokémon Company International and Kotiota’.
“I understand that Kotiota Studios (Kotiota) is an entity related to the respondents in their business endeavour the subject of these proceedings. On that website, there is a section titled “2022-2023 ROADMAP” which appears to outline the timeline for the launch of PokeWorld and release of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) related to Pokémon characters. A review of that webpage indicates that the PokeWorld game will launch in January 2023.” it read.
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