Pokemon Go Class Action Lawsuit – App is a Nuisance for Property Owners

So this one is still in early stages, but apparently, some people want to sue Pokemon Go for the nuisance the game is causing to property owners. They claim they deserve a part of the apps revenues since the game requires players to go to physical locations to catch the Pokemon.

Via Topclassactions.com, plaintiff Jeffrey Marder is bringing a Pokémon class action lawsuit against defendants Nintendo, Niantic Inc. and The Pokémon Company.

For the uninitiated, the game requires a player to wander around town, in real life, to look for a place where the game shows them these mythical ‘Pokemon’ creatures are lurking. (Full disclosure: I have never played the game.)

Marder had five people knock on his door to ask if they can use his backyard to catch a Pokemon, all in the first week from when the game launched.

The plaintiff seeks a class lawsuit consisting of anyone who had their property designated as a Pokestop. They also want the defendants stop using private property as stops in the future.

Will be interesting to see how this court case goes…

Hat tip to @travelwithgrant  
    Chuck
  • On August 9, 2016, 15:56

View Comments (17)

  • The plaintiff is most likely lying about 5 people knocking on his door.

    Pokemon capture attempt can be made when a pokemon is seen on the map, but before the pokemon shows up on the map, players have no way to see if there will be a pokemon at certain locations. (not without the help of pokevision, which was not available during the first week, and is now closed by the founder anyway).
    So the claim the plaintiff made is contradictory, because trainers would not knock on his door unless they know they are pokemon on his property, but if trainers already saw the pokemons on the map, they can simply tap on the pokemon to begin capture, without having to go to the actual spot.

    TL;DR: plantiff is probably lying.

    Btw, Chuck you should join the fun and try out the game :P
    It has been improved a lot lately.

    • Not necessarily. The plaintiff said it happened in the first week, which is when tracking was working within the app. It is not out of the realm of possibility that people were tracking Pokemon within the app (using the footsteps) to predict that there was a pokemon in his backyard.

  • Plaintiff says five people were raised right and knocked on his door. I would be curious how many just went into his back yard and left without his knowledge. Did the app track that?
    A lot of my apps now ask if a Pokemon Go stop is at the business I am visiting. I always say NO.
    I read some places pay the app to have a Pokemon Go stop at their business.

    I have not played the game, but I have a relative that has used up his entire monthly data plan roaming allowance in less than a week. Sprint cut off his data roaming.

    • There's no way of that happening... the app itself doesn't use that much data. I'm on a shared data plan and I'm under a 1gb this month. You have to literally be playing for hours on cellular to go over 1-2gbs and that's assuming your phone is charged the entire time. The app, if anything, is a battery drainer. I think Facebook uses more data altogether and that's just loading pages.

      He's doing something else.

  • Jehovah's Witnesses are a regular nuisance at my front door too; can we file a class action lawsuit against them?

    • And what would you sue them for? They get away with wasting everyone's time because they don't make money from the endeavour. Well, directly anyways.

      • I just tell them I'm busy at the moment then ask for their adress so I can visit them at 8pm on a Sunday night so I can tell them about Buddhism then try and convert them by pointing out how violent their religion is compared to Buddhism and ask how they can worship a war god.

  • Here's what I don't get. Most of stops seem to be public spots like churches, memorials (that one I'm unsure how I feel), landmarks, art pieces, etc. In really rare cases, it's private property like someone's home.. unless it's part of a historical piece or something.

    I find his class action suit silly because as someone who's played the game... you can be within a close distance and still get a pokemon. You wouldn't need to enter someone's home to get one in his backyard.

    If you look within a game map, I can walk along the block and hit the homes behind it as well (the ones on my street and the ones we share adjacent backyards to). The radius is fairly generous too.. so it's not necessarily at all to trespass.

    • This is a privately-owned blog, so I'm pretty sure Chuck can write about whatever the hell he wants.

      • Oh goodness, please shut up we know this. Readers can ask what they want and Chuck is a big boy who can defend himself if need be

    • Haha, we cover class action lawsuits and other moneymaking ideas. This one is too early to really have covered now, but I found it interesting so I posted.

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