Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Wizards files lawsuit against Pokemon USA/TPC/Nintendo

Status
Not open for further replies.
Like always, stupid stuff like this is just because Wizards isnt getting as much money as they used to. If WotC is sueing P-USA, NoJ (Nintendo of Japan) might as well get into this lawsuit, since they own the TCG in Japan, and start whipping Wizards butt. Obviously, Wizards is just doing this cuz they wont get money for Jamboree and Legendary Collection 2.

If it does affect the TCG community, the following might happen:

1. Wizards might get the liscense
2. Nintendo might keep the liscense
3. Nothing will happen. They will just kiss, make up, and have a party with a nice bonfire and they'll start singing nice camping songs.
 
I just think it's odd that WoTC can own the patent on the WAY TO PLAY A GAME ... god, I love America, and I'm all for protecting intellectual property (I'm a songwiter), but c'mon ... how can you patent the mechanics to a game???
 
Mystery Thing said:
... and is how the cards are physically constructed wotc's biggest beef with what pui did? (other than take away a relatively profitable game, i mean).
Click to expand...
Just one knot in the tangle my friend. Does anyone remember when the first set - Expedition - was "delayed"? Turns out that WotC and Nintendo were jointly working on the set to implement the dot code technology - something about the printing if I remember correctly.
Then again WotC does in fact hold the core patents that Richard Garfield and Peter Adkison obtained with Magic: The Gathering. They cover the whole concept of a collectable TCG, that uses expansions sets and booster packs to extend the game play. Technically anyone wishing to sell a TCG needs to get in on this license.
Then there was the fateful events at Worlds where a slip of the tongue revealed WotC plans to dump warehouses of product and make the brand worthless if they lost the license. That leaked and so we had "Player Appreciation" day at GenCon. I don't think I'm being cynical or unfair in pointing out that huge "coincidence". Maybe that little expose' soured relationships and thus they decided the relationship had gone far enough. It would be interesting to see the chain of events on this sad tale. Probably be an excellent example of real corporate politics.
 
ScythKing said:
Then there was the fateful events at Worlds where a slip of the tongue revealed WotC plans to dump warehouses of product and make the brand worthless if they lost the license.
Click to expand...

Actually, I heard about the license renewal stuff at Origins that year... nearly a month before Worlds. Mike Gills was really worried about it then. Obviously something before late June/early July between the two companies caused the hostile relationship. Though that could be anything, heck the 15+ chaos could have sparked it. TPC never liked that little situation, but that's all I've heard from one side of the story. I'm sure if I talked with a WotC representative right now, they would say they never liked it. Instead of WotC VS TPC... let's all blame Hasbro :lol:
-Phil
 
"1. Wizards might get the liscense"

Not likely, whatever happened, the liscense still expired a few weeks ago.

"2. Nintendo might keep the liscense"

Probably.

"3. Nothing will happen. They will just kiss, make up, and have a party with a nice bonfire and they'll start singing nice camping songs."

As long as MTM isn't invited.

"Hmm..... well, the news paper is always like the abridged version of the actual lawsuit. I wonder if the entire lawsuit text is online somewhere...."

I tried the court's website yesterday, but it was down.
 
Maybe a Wizards employee lost to a game of Pokemon against a Nintendo one, and it has evolved into this big thing. :)

Actually, we probably won't know what happened between the two companies until the case is settled.

Another thing. Do you mean that Player Appreciation at GenCon was only because of some sort of slip and would not have originally happened?
 
Do you mean that Player Appreciation at GenCon was only because of some sort of slip and would not have originally happened?
Click to expand...

Stunning spoiling strategy really messes with PUSA and PUI and raises the expectations for OP
 
Maybe a Wizards employee lost to a game of Pokemon against a Nintendo one, and it has evolved into this big thing
Click to expand...
good one :lol:

perhaps another reason PUI, P-USA, TPC, or whoever controls the liscense (so many names i didn't know existed and now i'm lost) didn't want WOTC to have the liscense was because WOTC was showing signs of independance from them. WOTC did make a team mulitplayer format which was WOTC only because it wasn't made by TPC. Then WOTC decides to try making its own set (Jamboree) with its own new mechanics (which i hope weren't broken enough to cause a restricted list to have been created) and such. If you were TPC and you knew WOTC was doing that to you, might that worry you a bit? if WOTC could sucessfully make their own sets without reliance on what was in Japan, that could be trouble.
 
Last edited:
"(I'm told Star Wars is still alive.)"
Eh, I don't think Star Wars ever WAS alive, or at least I've never seen anything with it.
*sticks up "looking for Brit SW players" signs everywhere*

Even if WotC could make their own sets without using original Japanese cards, they'd still need the license and copyright from Nintendo to use the Pokemon names..
 
Somehow, I can't help but feeling that all of us had a hand in this lawsuit. After all, when we all found out about the switch to NOA/PUI, didn't we all get on thier case about keeping everything just about the same. We all wanted OP to remain the same or similar. We all wanted the Professor Program to continue. We all wanted Leagues to continue. We all wanted Premier Events. We all wanted sanctioned tournament play. We all wanted DCI like floor rules and ratings. We all wanted 100% backwards compatability.

And what happened?... We got all that (for the most part).

We'll just have to wait and see what happens. But if history is any indication... most, if not all lawsuits filed againts NOA have failed or were settled out of cout without any trickling effect to costumers. (can't say the same about NCL and NOE though :( )
 
Still got lots and lots of swtcg stuff.... even managed to get some prize support out of WotC for a sanctioned event....but not enough players turned up :(

At Gencon Europe there was only 1 (yes that is ONE) swtcg player.

As to the law suits... well we will have to wait and see what happens after the initial mud slinging stops.

There will be no winner.. only a least looser.
 
Last edited:
Everyone seems to forget one thing, Wizards makes money off of Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh and others because of this little snidbit of info.

The company holds an exclusive patent on the method of playing trading card games (TCGs) and produces the premier trading card game, Magic: The Gathering®, among many other trading card games and family card and board games.
Click to expand...

That patent makes it so anyone using the TCG name has to pay Wizards some money
 
could one just change the name of their game to a CCG (collectable card game)? would that work in getting around the patent? or does WOTC hold that too? I thought upperdeck had CCG.
 
Trademarks and Service Marks are totally different things than Patents and both are different than Copyrights.

Ah yes. Giving out a few cases of cards to a few fans at a few events is equal to the market flood that some warned of. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
Anyway, I say 10-1 this thing gets settled out of court and we don't hear a thing. Besides, it's not like any of us are gonna get called to testify.

Mewtwo: My lawyer has instructed me that I have no comment on the matter.

Okay...
 
I always thought the Pokemon TCG infringed on the Magic patents and that was the reason WOTC got the US distribution rights. I can easily understand WOTC wanting fair value for their patents after Nintendo pulled the license.
 
farbsman:
Actually the reason why Yu-gi-oh and Upper Deck pays royalties to Wizards is because Yu-gi-oh is, in every legal sense, based on Magic: the Gathering. As in that Upper Deck pays Wizards royalties for using Magic elements in the game. :) ... Anyone who's played Magic and Yu-gi-oh will notice the similarities. And anyone who's kept tabs on the Yu-gi-oh franchise may be familiar with Yu-gi-oh's creator's particular fondness of Magic: the Gathering. :)


Just one knot in the tangle my friend. Does anyone remember when the first set - Expedition - was "delayed"? Turns out that WotC and Nintendo were jointly working on the set to implement the dot code technology - something about the printing if I remember correctly.

How could I forget? More so, I did find it odd that there were English Expedition cards made by a non-Wizards source (remember that Gastly card that was hot a while back?). This is kinda when I began to suspect things were amiss between Wizards and Nintendo, but never paid much attention to it.

.... Now it is my opinion that Nintendo intended on running the card game from day one, but didn't know how to. So Nintendo got some sucker (Wizards) to teach them how to produce cardboard cards, or at least give them enough info to eventually jump ship and produce their own cards. Lord knows if I was running a corporation, the more internalized I could get things, the better it would be for my company. And if I want to product something but can't, I'd either learn from a friend-corporation, research it myself, or buy out someone who knows how.

With that said.... I wouldn't be surprized if Nintendo intended to buy Wizards of the Coasts while Wizards was still independant. However Hasbro got to them before Nintendo, so they shifted their goals to just learn from Wizards then jump ship.

... There's obviously WAY more to this than any of us could figure out. (Mind you these are all my own guesstimations, none of this has been secret info given to me by "my sources".) ;)
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top