Pikachu’s been having a rough time lately. With the television show over and not another movie in sight (the games are still popular, though!), the world’s most recognizable Pokemon has got to do something to make that money. So he sent his lawyers after a dude trying to throw a party for the fans, demanding $4,000 immediately and not taking no for an answer.
Ars Technica reports that Ramar Larkin Jones tried to throw a Pokemon party just in time for PAX (a video game convention) back in August, thinking that he could get away with using pictures of the beloved creatures on the posters advertising the shindig. That’s when lawyers for The Pokemon Company got involved, immediately asking him for money in return for using likenesses of Pikachu and Snivy for the party. Jones cancelled the party immediately, but that wasn’t good enough for the lawyers at Davis Wright Tremaine who are refusing to drop the case against him unless he shells out $4,000 for a party that didn’t happen and wouldn’t have made a profit. From Ars Technica:
“I work in a cafe and I literally don’t have $4000,” Jones wrote on a fundraising page he set up to try to satisfy Pokémon’s demands for cash. “I wish they would have just sent a cease and desist because I had no problem dropping the party but I just don’t have $4000 to pay in the next 45 days.”
He even tried to get the lawyers to extend the deadline, but they gave him a hearty hell no in response. And it’s not like the dude was trying to make bank off this fiesta:
The Pokémon party would have been a money-losing endeavor, Jones told Geekwire, as it has been every year since 2011 when he first threw it. He collected about $500 by selling tickets at $2 apiece, but that revenue was outweighed by the $450 he spent on a DJ and gift cards, plus additional revenue spent on decorations, a Kindle Fire, and cash prizes. Jones refunded the tickets after he canceled the party.
Now Jones is trying to get fans to help him out by raising money to pay off the lawyers, whom even Team Rocket would probably have a problem with. He has raised $1,400 so far, but that’s a far cry from the $4,000 he has just a little over a month to raise. In return, he promises never to throw a fandom party again.
Quick question: how much will The Pokemon Company be suing the parents who gave their little girl the worst Pokemon Halloween costume ever? Think they could get at least $50?
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(Via Ars Technica)
