Well, sadly it’s happened folks.:(

As of last Friday, I had to pull iPokédex from active distribution and leave it offline indefinitely, by personal request of a representative of The Pokémon Company International.:(

I’m really disappointed it came down to that, but sadly, there doesn’t appear to have been any other option.

Since I was slightly busy on the weekend, it’s taken this long to follow up on the matter here, but now I’ll see about putting up what’s been going down since my last blog post.

After receiving the notice from Apple, I immediately followed up by sending this email to the address they provided to me:

(more…)

Well. It finally happened. Since it’s been more than a month after I heard about it happening on Android, I was wondering if it ever was going to happen on the iOS as well… but it looks like it finally has.

On Saturday morning, I received this email from Apple:

Dear Tim,

On 6/27/2011, we received a notice from The Pokémon Company International, Inc that The Pokémon Company International, Inc believes your application named “iPokédex” infringes The Pokémon Company International, Inc’s intellectual property rights.

We look forward to receiving written assurance that your application does not infringe The Pokémon Company International, Inc’s rights, or that you are taking steps to promptly resolve the matter.  Written assurance may include confirmation that your application does not infringe The Pokémon Company International, Inc’s rights, an express authorization from The Pokémon Company International, Inc, or other evidence acceptable to Apple.We look forward to receiving confirmation from you within 5 days.

At this point, I’m not surprised at this message. It’s been a long time coming.

I am quite disappointed about this though.
I find it quite amazing that TPCI would be wanting to shut these kinds of apps down. If the reviews of iPokédex are any indication, the Pokémon brand has been enhanced by these fan productions. Some people have even said that iPokédex is what got them into Pokémon in the first place.

I would also say that as long as these apps aren’t trying to generate profit, they shouldn’t be causing any damage at all. There was previously an argument that 3rd-party Pokédex apps could interfere with the sale of strategy guides, but given there is now an official Pokédex app for the 3DS that is also free, I’m really not sure about that.

At this stage, I’ve replied to Apple acknowledging the message. I’ve also promised that if I cannot resolve this within the 5 days, then I’ll personally be removing iPokédex from active distribution for an indefinite period.

From here on, I’ll be getting in touch with the Pokémon Company International to see if I can clarify the nature of this copyright infringement, and if there’s anything I can do to fix it.

For the time being, I’m choosing to remain optimistic it’s possible to work something out.

But in the meantime, if you haven’t already downloaded iPokédex, get it while you can. If I need to take it down, then the time is set for Wednesday evening.