Copyright Infringement? Japanese City Introduces Pikachu-Lookalike Eco Character

[mr_pikachu]

On Monday, the city of Ube in the Yamaguchi prefecture revealed its new eco-friendly mascot, Ecoha-chan. According to Anime News Network, the city's online blog post sparked a number of responses that the character design, for which the city owns the copyright, resembled Pikachu -- a fact that city staff members themselves noted after the costume was completed last October. (The picture, which you can see below, has since been removed from Ube's site, although a small illustration is still visible in the site header.)

An Ube city spokesperson said that "[Our] original illustration [and the character of Pikachu] are different, and we consider copyright not to be a problem."

Nonetheless, the Pokémon Company is looking into the situation and determining how it should deal with this possible infringement on the Pikachu copyright. A company spokesperson said that "We will gather more information about the situation, and then we would want to consider our options for how to respond."

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