Former Pokémon lawyer talks fan project takedowns

Welcome back to another Thursday and your favorite email of the week: Victory Road. It’s your best pal Cooltrainer Ace, delivering up the latest and greatest Pokémon news fresher than fried Slowpoke tail.

(Because Slowpoke tail is illegal in five regions, I am obligated to say that I have never purchased or partaken of Slowpoke tail, recreationally or medicinally).

This week’s rundown (estimated read time 5 minutes):

• A former Pokémon lawyer talks fan projects

• Baby Pokémon invade Scarlet & Violet

• Cooltrainer Chronicles, Part 4!

An interview with Pokémon’s former chief lawyer

Earlier this month, Aftermath sat down with Don McGowan, the former Chief Legal Officer and Business Affairs for The Pokémon Company from 2008 to 2020.

You can check out the full interview here. Among the nuggets that stood out to me is how the company decides when to take on fan projects.

At Pokémon, McGowan also oversaw the Customer Service team, was responsible for event security at World Championships and held meetings with privacy regulators around the world after Pokémon GO launched.

He had a team of 20 lawyers and paralegals and spent about 125 days a year on the road. If you’ve ever randomly seen his name, its may be because he was a producer for Detective Pikachu the movie. This guy did anything and everything for The Pokémon Company.

As Chief Legal Officer, McGowan oversaw cease and desist letters sent to fan projects. In his own words, this is how a fan project gets on their radar:

I would be sitting in my office minding my own business when someone from the company would send me a link to a news article, or I would stumble across it myself. I teach Entertainment Law at the University of Washington and say this to my students: the worst thing on earth is when your "fan" project gets press, because now I know about you.

You don't send a takedown right away. You wait to see if they get funded (for a Kickstarter or similar); if they get funded then that's when you engage. No one likes suing fans.

Ace take: Fan games (like Pokémon Uranium) have always been a victim of their own success, even when they haven’t sought compensation for their work. It’s a shame there isn’t a better way for fan projects and intellectual property to coexist, and that The Pokémon Company doesn’t do more to engage and collaborate with fan creators.

Prepare for mass outbreaks of little Pokémon

What’s small, cute and likely to keep you up all hours of the night? If you answered baby Pokémon, you’re right!

Beginning today at 5 p.m. Pacific, six “little” Pokémon are coming to Scarlet and Violet mass outbreaks. All of them are more likely to have the Vigor Mark. The event runs until Sunday (Easter Day) March 31 at 4:59 p.m. Pacific.

Here’s what you can find and where:

• Paldea – Pichu and Happiny

• Kitakami – Munchlax and Riolu

• Blueberry Academy – Elekid and Magby

Am I the only one who thinks Riolu is a strange addition to this group? I didn’t know it was considered a baby Pokémon until I wrote this. And there’s more. Consider this a bonus fact of the day:

Riolu is the only Baby Pokémon that evolves into a Semi-Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon and its evolution can Mega Evolve. Mantyke is the only Baby Pokémon that can evolve while having a certain Pokémon in the party. Riolu and Toxel are the only Baby Pokémon to have debuted in the same generation as their evolved forms.

Riolu is classified as a baby Pokémon because it’s a first stage Pokémon that can’t breed (meaning you need Lucario to get a Riolu egg, compared to say, breeding Squirtle to get a Squirtle egg).

Ace take: This event would have been MUCH cooler if they’d hidden random eggs all over the map and you had a chance to find perfect IV, shiny or other rare Pokémon with egg-only moves. Put the egg hunt back in Easter, Game Freak!

The Cooltrainer Chronicles, pt. 4

Here’s the thing about Mankey. They’re just over a foot tall, but their average weight is sixty pounds, according to most Pokedexes. That’s some serious muscle density packed into a tiny ball of rage.

When a group of them swarm you, it’s like a flurry of furry, screaming, eye-gouging cannonballs chasing you.

So I did what any intrepid Cooltrainer-to-be would in such a situation. I steeled my resolve and ran for my life.

The only thing going my way were my long legs and the lack of trees surrounding us, meaning the Mankeys had to try to outrace me on foot instead of swinging through the branches. 

Feet thundering, chest heaving, it was only when I came back to the edge of the ravine that I realized I’d crossed a rather large creek earlier that day.

On my hasty retreat to escape the Mankeys, I hadn’t followed my exact path back. This was unfortunate, due to the lack of a bridge on my current trajectory

Praying to Arceus that I didn’t break my back, I jumped from the steep bank… and plunged into the water.

I surfaced and gasped for air, coughing and spluttering. The creek had widened into a sort of pool where I’d jumped. Luckily, it was just deep enough that I hadn't smashed into the bottom.

Before I could open my eyes, something wet and heavy smacked into the side of my head.

Shouting in surprise, I opened my eyes just as a second Mankey flung another handful of mud my way.

This one sailed just overhead, but by now the entire group had caught on to the idea. Hopping and shrieking, they peppered me with mud as I swam across the pool to the far bank, sodden, humiliated and furious.

Blinded by anger, I reached for a Poke Ball and hurled it at the ringleader. It fell short, bouncing off the dirt slope before rolling out of sight into some willows.

“Idiot,” I muttered. Now I was down to four Poke Balls with nothing to show for it. 

I made a rude gesture with one hand at the Mankey, who jumped and hooted in triumph. Sodden and downcast, I struggled up the bank and sloshed away, humiliated.

Wild Pokémon - 1 Not-so-Cooltrainer Ace - 0

Card of the Week

This Hisuian Growlithe Illustration Rare from the upcoming Twilight Masquerade expansion is the goodest boi there ever was.

Random encounters around the internet

• 🐳 The next Pokémon GO event, Sizeable Surprises begins Thursday, April 4 at 10 a.m. and runs to Tuesday, April 9 at 8 p.m. (local times).

• 🎂 Pokémon Snap turned 25 years old last week.

• 📺️ Part 4 of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys is now available to rent or purchase on Amazon, iTunes, or Google Play.

Obscure Pokémon Fact (from u/Mx_Toniy_4869)

Until next time,
Cooltrainer “this is not legal advice” Ace