this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2026
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Which pals used Pokemon trademarked material?
That yellow Gengar with a machine gun on all their advertising for starters.
It's like when you go to Aldi and see their knock-off products. Although Tunnock's don't have a copyright on stripes, diamond shapes, red, gold, chocolate, wafers, or caramel, there's no accident that their own brand can be mistaken for the real thing if you're not paying attention.
And sure, it may well hold up in court, but it's still going to be expensive finding that out.
A large number of pokemon are based on animals/mythical creatures. A large number of pals are based on animals/mythical creatures.
They both have a very similar artistic style. But you can't copyright a style. At some point using a similar style on similar animals will get you similar looking results.
Allowing companies to copyright styles would be a very bad thing.
There's actually plenty of material to compare to, with a swath of Pal designs that are clearly original, in a similar style with similar inspirations. Then there are models with almost precisely the same silhouette and proportions as iconic Pokemon, which are frankly just worse designs for it, since the altered colors and markings clash with the original concept and result in a generally forgettable whole. They clearly had the skill and motivation to innovate more within their niche, but instead the game is half-full of what feel like hastily painted over placeholders.