The Department of Homeland Security has shared a video of immigrants being arrested, spliced together with the Pokemon theme tune.
Captioned ‘Gotta Catch ‘Em All’, the clip is a clear imitation of the popular anime, with images of Ash Ketchum and Pokemon balls cut together with footage of people being handcuffed.
At the end of the clip, the men arrested are shown in mocked up Pokemon cards which give details of their crimes and show the flags of their nationalities.
All are listed as ‘illegal’ with their ‘weakness’ symbol shown as ice, a reference both to typings for Pokemon, and to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose officers carry out immigration raids.
The video has been viewed millions of times since it was posted yesterday, and many people have just one question… Is Nintendo going to do anything about this?
Metro has asked if they gave permission for their intellectual property to be used in this manner, and will update this story if we hear back.
Pokemon is jointed owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures.
It’s a safe bet that none of them would be thrilled, given that Pokemon is a family friendly franchise, and the video includes references to murder, manslaughter, human smuggling, child molestation, and paedophilia.
The best known of Pokemon’s owners, Nintendo, is known to be ruthless when it comes to piracy, as we reported last month when it won a lawsuit against Switch modder Ryan Daley, who agreed to pay them $2 million in damages, as part of a settlement to stop the case from going to court.
In the same week, it won a lawsuit against Genki, an accessory manufacturer sued for trademark infringement and false advertising over mocked-up Switch 2 consoles prior to its reveal.
Court documents showed how Genki is now banned from using any Nintendo logo, design, or ‘anything confusingly similar thereto, in any manner in connection with its business’. This even extends to any colour schemes which are ‘confusingly or substantially similar’ to Nintendo’s.
So, will the company show the same robust defence for its intellectual property when it comes for the US government?
One user responding on X posted an image of Pikachu phoning Officer Jenny, the police officer who appears in almost every town or city in the Pokemon world.
Nintendo is so hot on protecting its IP that is has a dedicated email for people to report tips of where piracy is taking place.
A definition posted on its website says: ‘A copyright is an exclusive right granted to a creator of a literary, musical, audio-visual or artistic work, giving the creator the sole right to reproduce exact or derivative copies, and access, display, perform, transmit or otherwise distribute that work.
‘There are several different types of copyrights that are associated with Nintendo’s products. These include various copyrights in Nintendo’s software source code, executable code, game visual display, game music, game characters, product packaging, game manuals and labels, artwork and publications.’
The Pokemon Company’s website says that ‘fan art’ of Pokemon is permitted, but only on a ‘personal, noncommercial’ basis.
Metro has contacted the Pokemon Company for comment.
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