Thread: Pokémon vs. Pocket Monsters

I've heard that the name "Pocket Monsters" had to be changed to "Pokémon" outside of Japan because they couldn't trademark "Pocket Monsters" due to the similarity between that phrase and "Monster in My Pocket". I was wondering if this is true or not... it makes perfect sense, except for one thing -- the monsters are commonly referred to as "ポケモン pokemon"... even in the original Red and Green Versions. If that variation was already in use then isn't it possible that they could have just chose that name for marketing reasons / because it's simpler and not because of some trademark conflict?

Originally Posted by dannyjenn

I've heard that the name "Pocket Monsters" had to be changed to "Pokémon" outside of Japan because they couldn't trademark "Pocket Monsters" due to the similarity between that phrase and "Monster in My Pocket". I was wondering if this is true or not... it makes perfect sense, except for one thing -- the monsters are commonly referred to as "ポケモン pokemon"... even in the original Red and Green Versions. If that variation was already in use then isn't it possible that they could have just chose that name for marketing reasons / because it's simpler and not because of some trademark conflict?

In the original japanese the official title is pocket monsters and the official shortening is pokemon which is used as the name of the creatures.

I'm aware of that... I'm just wondering if the reason for re-naming it was really trademark issues or if the shortened term "Pokémon" was just simpler. I mean, take Digimon for example. There would have been no trademark issues with the name "Digital Monsters", but they chose to shorten it anyway.

I imagine that the ones who own the "Monster in my Pocket" franchise would sue Nintendo for using the name "Pocket Monsters" on the grounds that they have both the words "Monster" and "Pocket" in it, similar to how Facebook trademarked the words "Face" and "Book" to prevent similar occurrences. However, I think it is a great decision to rename it Pokémon because that name sounds catchier than Pocket Monsters. It also keep things simple for everyone else, because everyone can just call it Pokémon instead of some people calling it Pocket Monsters and others calling it Pokemon.

Thanks for reading.

What is the world are monsters in my pocket? Either way I like Pokemon much better. Its fun to say and it's more original. Kids would have just said 'monsters' anyways instead of 'Pocket Monsters'. If there were a issue with TM then it probably would have been Pocket Monsters for a while longer. I don't know about infrigment but they probably wanted something more original.

I wonder what Pocket Monsters sounds like in Japanese since it's shortened?

Monster In My Pocket was something from (I believe) the '90s. I really don't rememer anything about it other than the name (I don't even remember if I knew about it before I heard of Pokémon or if I heard of it because of the trademark issue). But anyway, they had trading cards and comic books and video games so yeah, it'd definitely be similar enough that the trademark would affect "Pocket Monsters" (unlike if it was completely different, like a brand of dishwasher called "Monster in My Pocket", which in that case I don't think they could legally do anything about it since no one is going to confuse a dishwasher company for a video game).