What this is
What The Pokémon Company International’s 2016 US court win against Crystal Carvings rested on: copyright, with no trademark claim and no mention of Nintendo or a licence.
How it’s built
- Read the final judgment of 8 April 2016 in the Western District of Washington (case 2:16-cv-00122): an “action for copyright infringement”, covering works in which the US arm or an affiliate owns or controls an exclusive right.
What we assumed
Nothing. The figure is used as published.
Sanity check
The word search of the judgment found no “trademark”, “Lanham”, “Nintendo” or “licens”. It shows the US arm suing on copyright, consistent with Nintendo holding the US trademarks.
Where it comes from
TPCi v. Crystal Carvings LLC, W.D. Wash. 2:16-cv-00122, Doc. 20, final judgment and permanent injunction Justia (court filing mirror) · 8 April 2016 Open the original ↗
The line in the source
“Poké Ball” refers to a glass or other transparent sphere manufactured and sold by Defendants or at their direction, which contains a reproduction or manifestation of a Pokémon character or image