The company that owns the rights to Pokémon sued the mobile NFT game PokéWorld due to unauthorized use of intellectual property

The Pokémon Company International has sued an Australian mobile video game developer over the unauthorized use of intellectual property. This is written by the publication Vooks with reference to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is filed against the company Pokémon Pty, which planned to release a video game with NFT elements called PokéWorld. The copyright holder called on the court to prohibit the Australian company from using trademarks on the website and on social networks. Also, The Pokémon Company International demanded to prohibit the release of an NFT game or other digital assets related to its intellectual property. The court sided with the copyright holder and banned the Australian company from promoting products under the Pokémon brand in any way.

The Pokémon Company is a Japanese company founded in 1998. It belongs to Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures in the same percentage. The company owns the rights not only to anime, but also to video games based on the Pokemon brand.

Despite the attempts of gaming companies to capitalize on the technology of non-interchangeable tokens, the digital collector industry itself is on the decline. For example, in 2022, Christie's auction house sold 87 NFTs for a total of $5.9 million. This is 96% less than in 2021.

Then, against the background of the NFT boom, Christie's sales exceeded $150 million. The artist Mike Winkelman, known under the pseudonym Beeple, had a significant share in this indicator. In March last year, NFT Everydays: The First 5000 Days went under the hammer for $69.3 million, and in October — HUMAN ONE for $28.9 million.

Christie's stressed that the decline in indicators in the field of digital art is due to the experimental nature and general volatility of the cryptocurrency market. However, representatives of the auction house noted that they will continue to implement initiatives in the direction of digital tokens.