The Pokemon Company has filed a lawsuit against those who leaked pre-release images of Sword/Shield
Pokemon games tend to be an incredibly popular topic of discussion, no matter what, but with the dawn of a new generation, where information and unannounced Pokemon are slowly trickled out over months, or even kept secret until launch, fans were going wild with anticipation. This was especially true for Sword and Shield, which had a very contentious pre-release fervor to them. When images of the strategy guide for Pokemon Sword and Shield appeared on the internet, weeks prior to the games' official release, which was on November 15th, they went viral, as users posted them to every nook and cranny of social media and message board. Nintendo themselves even tried to get many sites to take those pictures down, citing the DMCA, to mild success. But by then, everyone had already saved the images and had distributed them even further across the internet.
To mitigate damage caused by the Defendants' leaks, TPCi submitted hundreds of takedown requests to platforms to remove the leaked images.
The content of the leaked strategy guide, which was slated to release a week after Sword and Shield themselves, on November 22nd, included pictures of Gigantamax Pokemon, the entirety of the Galar region's Pokedex (and all of its cuts, which turned into a dramatic hashtag campaign on Twitter), all of the new Pokemon and their Galarian forms, and more.
The Pokemon Company International believes that this leak of information has caused "irreparable damages", and by sharing stolen trade secrets, they threatened the value of both major Pokemon titles. A lawsuit has been filed with Perkins Coie LLP, where TPCi is looking to seek compensation for "wrongful conduct", and monetary relief for the damages caused by said leaks. The legal document shows posts from anonymous individuals on 4chan and Discord sharing dozens of screenshots from the guidebook, and though TPCi currently does not know who these four John/Jane Does are, they're actively searching to find out who was behind the Discord account providing the screenshots. Currently, TPCi is looking to issue a subpoena to Discord, in order to get more information on the accounts.
TPCi seeks leave to subpoena Discord, 4chan, and the individual who used the [specified] Discord handle, for identifying information associated with the users that posted the leaked images. TPCi will seek identifying information associated with the images, IP address, email address, secondary or recovery email address, records of session times and duration, and any other identifying information.
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Tags: [GAME=/game/pok-mon-sword.37382]Pokémon Sword[/GAME] [GAME=/game/pok-mon-shield.115653]Pokémon Shield[/GAME] [COMPANY=/company/the-pokemon-company-international]The Pokémon Company International[/COMPANY]