Pokémon Company suing unidentified individuals over Sword and Shield leaks
Defendants said to have revealed new Pokémon ahead of release
The Pokémon Company is suing unidentified US individuals over Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield leaks prior to the game’s release.
The suit alleges the “defendants stole trade secrets from TPCi by taking illicit pictures of pages from an unreleased strategy guide created to accompany the release of two highly anticipated video games.”
It adds: “The pictures revealed never-before-seen Pokémon and evolutions of Pokémon that TPCi and its partners intended to keep secret until the games’ release on November 15, 2019.”
According to Forbes, the defendants are accused of publishing photos of unseen Gigantamax forms on Discord and 4chan beginning on November 1, which then spread to at least 300 web pages identified by The Pokémon Company.
Lawyers claim the leaks caused “irreparable injury” to The Pokémon Company and that it’s “entitled to damages in an amount to be proven at trial.”
The Pokémon Company has identified four potential leakers by their Discord names and has requested the court issues subpoenas on Discord and 4chan to help them uncover their real identity.
Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield combined are Switch’s fastest-selling games to date, according to The Pokémon Company, which claims they surpassed six million sales in their first week of availability.
Epic Games recently sued two testers over the leaking of Fortnite Chapter 2 information ahead of its October release.
