The Pokémon Company has issued an official response to the use of its intellectual property in a social media video shared by the US Department of Homeland Security earlier this week, confirming that it had no involvement in the controversial post.
The video depicts footage of US officials, including members of Border Patrol squads and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), conducting raids and arrests, set to and captioned with the title of the English Pokémon anime theme song, “Gotta Catch ‘Em All.”
The Pokémon Company’s official response to Eurogamer confirms what many already believed: “We are aware of a recent video posted by the Department of Homeland Security that includes imagery and language associated with our brand. Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property.“
The Pokémon Company Responds To The DHS’ Video
“Permission Was Not Granted”
The above video was posted on the Department of Homeland Security’s official X (formerly Twitter) page on September 22.
The video sparked immediate controversy, with many viewers criticizing its inappropriately gleeful tone and overt racism, stereotyping immigrants — primarily those from Latin-American and Caribbean countries — as criminals. The video ends with several images of people arrested by ICE photoshopped onto Pokémon cards, each backgrounded with an image of their national flag and accompanied by descriptions of the crimes of which they were accused.
Many US government agencies have recently turned to posting memes as a form of political propaganda. These posts often employ recognizable IP, and are designed to spark engagement through controversy. In March, for example, the official White House X shared an AI-generated image of Philadelphia resident Virginia Basora-Gonzalez’s arrest by ICE, rendered in a Studio Ghibli art style.
The Jury’s Still Out On Legal Action
Nintendo Has Yet To Respond
This isn’t the first such post to cause controversy; however, it may be the first to draw an official response from the IP holder. Perhaps the most ire in the replies came from Pokémon fans, many of whom called on Nintendo and The Pokémon Company to sue DHS.
At the time of writing, neither Nintendo nor The Pokémon Company has announced any intention to take legal action against the Department of Homeland Security. Although the latter disavowed the use of its IP in the social media video, Nintendo has yet to respond to Eurogamer‘s questions about whether it plans to take any action, legal or otherwise, against DHS.
Nintendo has a long history of litigiousness, including, most recently, its patent infringement lawsuit against the Pokémon-inspired Palworld, which recently took an unusual turn. However, the grand majority of its legal action has targeted other video game production efforts: fan projects that use Nintendo IP, sites distributing ROMs of Nintendo games, et cetera.
It’s never sued a government agency before, though, likely because it’s never had a reason to. We’re in uncharted waters here; it remains to be seen how Nintendo and Pokémon will choose to respond.
- Created by
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Satoshi Taijiri, Ken Sugimori, Junichi Masuda
- Latest Film
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Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle
- First Episode Air Date
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April 1, 1997
- Current Series
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Pokémon