Pokemon Clones. There seem to be hundreds of them available via online markets nowadays for devices like iOS and Android, but how can Nintendo let this happen?
We’ve all seen these games advertised. The shameless Mobile “Clones” of Pokemon that blatantly use like images or sometimes actual trademarked art from Pokemon in order to advertise their game. It makes a person wonder if Nintendo knows about this, and if so, why they haven’t taken any action against them? Well a good example would be a mobile game called Battle Camp, which advertises itself as a Pokemon rip-off but is actually just a match 3 game in disguise. Though the imagery is “close” to being Pokemon, the gameplay is different enough, and the designs are original enough that it gets away with it.
But then there’s games like Pocket Master, which has been advertised all over Twitter in last month or two, that doesn’t use just likenesses but ACTUAL Pokemon to advertise itself. It’s so blatant it almost hurts. It even says “Poke” in the name, which is trademarked by Nintendo. So how do they get away with it? Well, to put it simply, they’re just not big enough to sue, and they don’t directly threaten Nintendo. So the most Nintendo will do is send a cease and desist letter, if they felt so inclined. Which pretty much means we’ll continue to get these cheap knock offs until Nintendo uproots all of them.
Which may be never.
