The Poké Courtyarda premises Pokemon card and collectors store in Manhattan, was rarrested at gunpoint in January. Armed burglars arrived and terrorized guests in the middle of a crowded event. As traumatic as it was, employees said My city than the widest Pokemon The community showed up to support them. As word spread, Nintendo was apparently informed that the store had since contacted the owners to… ask them to change their branding.
The store displayed on its Instagram account that Nintendo raised “concerns” over its name and logo, which included the iconic red and white Poké Ball. “In short, Nintendo has contacted us with concerns regarding our name and logo,” the message reads. “That means we are evolving!”
As such, the owners released a statement with a new name and logo. The store will now be called The Trainer Court and has now replaced the Poké Ball logo with a new one with a stylized “C” for “Court”. Beyond that, the store will continue to offer the same maps, community events and tournaments. The Trainer Court will also host an event on Pokémon Day on February 27, which commemorates the 30th anniversary of the series.
© Photo: Kenneth Shepard “Above all, we have always been fans of Pokemon”, we can read in the press release. “We are a group of kids who refuse to grow up and we spend every day celebrating this franchise that means so much to us.
Nintendo has a history of engaging in disputes over fan creations, events, and businesses, whether it’s fairly normal things like fan gamesor more unsavory affairs like piracy. They certainly did not intervene when the Department of Homeland Security was using the Pokémon theme song to promote ICE, though.
The Pokémon Company made issue a statement to My city confirming it wasn’t involved, but the video is always present on social networks and received over 75 million views on X alone.