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The Pokemon Company International is demanding $4000 from a fan of the series after he organized a Pokemon themed party to celebrate the kick off of PAX earlier this year. Ramar Larkin Jones organized the unofficial Pokemon PAX party this year but had to cancel it at the last minute following legal threats. However, even though the event didn't go ahead, the Pokemon Company still wants a payout.
The big mistake seems to be the use of two characters of the series on the poster. While the party was always labelled as ‘unofficial', due to Pikachu appearing on what could be considered ‘marketing material', the Pokemon company isn't letting it go.
Now, Ramar Larkin Jones isn't rich to the best of our knowledge, he doesn't have the funds to fight this in a court case or even pay the fine himself right away. Instead of trying to fight this, he is going to pay the fine, though he is asking the community to chip in with a GoFundMe campaign:
“Hi, I'm Larkin Jones and I'm being sued by Pokémon. I'm a video gamer, huge Pokémon fan and over all a huge geek. The day before the PAX party, Pokémon sued me. Without even a cease and desist. Totally didn't expect that. Pokémon wants $4000 that I just don't have.”
He claims that he offered to pay the fine off in instalments over the course of a year but the Pokemon Company weren't having any of it and demanded the cash within 45 days. Larkin Jones works in a cafe, so $4000 isn't just something he has lying around. While the unofficial Pokemon party has been held prior to PAX annually since 2011, the organizer claims that it always resulted in him losing money, but he continued to put the event on anyway due to positive reception. He had received no objections in the past so this year's lawsuit came as quite a surprise.
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KitGuru Says: Slapping a fan with a $4000 fine seems a bit excessive, especially since the event was cancelled as per the Pokemon Company's initial request. On top of that, they denied his request for a pay-off period, which just seems to make matters worse. What do you guys think of this? Who is in the wrong here? While I understand that the Pokemon Company need to protect their IP, shaking down a fan for cash seems like an awful move.
I’d wait until they invited me to court, greedy corporate pigs, the legal costs coupled with the possible bad publicity would probably change there minds. Indecently, I always thought Nintendo were the pokemon company.
My God, what a bunch of petty assholes. What’s next? Going after kids who use Pikachu in their promotion when organizing a Pokémon TCG tournament at school? There is absolutely nothing to gain from this kind of behavior, and it just reinforces by belief that the rules regarding property rights are retarded and in no way are actually used to protect people from misuse or theft of their intellectual property. A better solution would be to get rid of IP rights altogether. Be creative and innovative, or die in the free market.
Since he cancelled the event and made nothing from it he should not be charged. He didn’t even receive a cease and desist. It shouldn’t hold in court. I wouldn’t pay a dime.
Nothing produces a loyal fan-base like kicking the snot out those providing you free marketing and hype for no profit of their own. It’s not like $4k even means anything to the company, it’s just a kick in the groin for the sake of kicking the fan in the groin, especially after they already stopped the event.
Best marketing move: giving their blessing to a one-time event which would cost them nothing
Worst marketing move: suing a guy for organising a one-time event which would have cost them nothing
Seriously, what an utter disgrace.
In other news: The Pokemon Company recently discovered the concept of pettiness and promptly decided to center their business model around it.
Surly there should be some kind of fan/fair rights of use.
Best thing to do here is for another collection games company to come forward and publicly pay the fine and then announce that they allow him or any other person to create a party with their product without being sued as long as the party are created by a private individual and not a company. Probably also have to mention that no profit can be cept by that person but have to go to a charity…
He did use the IP without consent but im surprised at the response given that the organiser made reasonable effort to correct it. No ‘Cease and Desist’ is an indication of what they’re after.
They want to make an example out of him when any reasonable company would have appealed to the gentlemen to impress upon him their issue with his infringement. After which, they’d leave it to him to do the right thing and save all the acrimony.
Well that has just put me off any further Pokemon purchases now. This is going to cost them more than $4000. As MangoMango said worst marketing move ever.
I work in the creative industry and I could have taken action myself if I
noticed that my IP is used without my permission but no professional in
his right mind could go any farther if the offender step back and
remove the offensive content, especially when the guy didn’t made any money out of it.
I wonder if the company is aware that the offender took down the content or the law firm is pushing it themselves.
Disgusting an unprofessional move.
The individual did not seek to profit or break the law, but rather support the brand unite some of its most loyal fans…its not like he was screen printing 1 million counterfeit tshirts out of china.
This behavior is almost identical to Nintendo who have turned on their longterm fans suing, taking down or trying to monetize on everything from walkthrough’s and videos of kids playing the game in the background in almost a last ditch effort to remain profitable. For this reason I vouch to never spend a cent on Nintendo brand and now Pokemon.
Me to, I’d call a Cosplay party and fill the courthouse with 13 year old kids. Give them an early wakeup to the puppeteers and penny pinchers behind the tv screen.