The Pokemon Company sues Pokemon Sword and Shield leakers
Unknown US individuals sought for posting early, unreleased images of new Pokemon on Discord, 4chan
The Pokemon Company has filed suit against at least three unknown US individuals for leaking early images of Pokemon Sword and Shield monsters and gameplay info.
Forbes reports that a lawsuit filed in the western district court of Washington at Seattle targets three unknown US residents who took "illicit pictures of pages from an unreleased strategy guide" for Sword and Shield and distributed those images across Discord and 4chan over the course of 15 hours in early November.
The suit goes on to argue that these images, which included images of the game's Gigantamax forms for Machamp, Eevee, Garbador, and Kingler as well several other new Pokemon and characters, constituted valuable trade secrets that disrupted The Pokemon Company's plans to market the game leading up to its launch.
The Pokemon Company is seeking damages and relief, attorney's fees, and the prevention of the defendants from using its confidential information in the future.
However, the lawsuit does not specifically identify any of the three individuals concerned. Though it has screenshots of their Discord names, The Pokemon Company only names John/Jane Does as defendants and has hired investigators to uncover their names. Forbes additionally reports that The Pokemon Company has requested a subpoena on Discord and 4chan to obtain their help in identifying the leakers.
Just last month, Epic Games filed suit against a tester for leaking Fortnite's Chapter 2. It did the same thing to another former employee in June of 2018 over a different set of leaks.