Forum - View topicINTEREST: Pikachu Lookalike Mascot Costume Abandoned by City
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nhat
Posts: 922 |
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Pokemon has become pretty well known, kind of like Mickey mouse. Just using a mascot suit that is used for non-profit, I don't see any harm there.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4650 |
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The harm would really come from the message that people might interpret from them doing nothing. If they didn't do anything this time, somebody else might think it's ok because nothing happened, and eventually you have several groups using your legally protected material for their own purposes. People try to abuse perceived loopholes and gaps all the time, so it's better to be as consistent as possible. I'd say a fair compromise was worked out. The costume did look very Pokemon-ish, but the drawing seemed fine to me. Dropping the costume, keeping the drawing, and moving on seems like the most civil way for this to go. |
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Racheldoublemm
 Posts: 112 Location: San Francisco |
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The mascot looks like a combination of Gir and Pikachu. I think with a few design changes it would have been fine. Maybe a bit of testing should have been done before actually promoting it.
However, it is positively adorable and a shame that it didn't work out. |
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Sunday Silence
 Posts: 2047 |
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It still looks like Pichu. How these people thought "Oh, it's Pikachu" need to learn up on their Pokemon.
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ljaesch
Posts: 299 Location: Enumclaw, WA |
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It looks like a good compromise ended up being made between the two parties.
Seeing the drawing included in this article, it looks different than the one that was posted on MSN Japan last week. The drawing being shown here looks enough different from the Pikachu or Pichu characters that it's much less likely to confuse little kids. The picture of the costume confused my 6-year-old when she saw it last week; her reaction when she saw it was to exclaim, "Pikachu!" As for the costume, the face definitely looked a lot like Pikachu. Like I said last week, the face on the head of that costume looked eerily similar to my 6-year-old's Pikachu plush toy (the eyes, the cheeks, and even the mouth matched perfectly). |
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ommadon
Posts: 55 |
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The ears are different shapes, and lack the marked tips. There is evidently no tail. The hands are black. It is not pikachu, it is just a generic rosy-cheeked, cat-mouthed, black-dot-eyed creature. Poke'mon evidently has a copyright on "so easy 5 year-old children can draw this cute thing" characters.
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Lightning Leo
Posts: 311 Location: Earth |
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The costume looks a lot like Pichu... the original character design, not so much. This is a pretty good compromise, methinks.
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14889 |
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Unlike copyrights, a trademark can be lost if not protected. Nintendo is just protecting its trademark if something is too close. The city and Nintendo could have a fight, or they could make a deal together such that the city gets to keep using the mascot costume, with Nintendo's understanding (since they own the trademark).
That's the hazard with anime/manga using such simplistic faces.
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