Abstract:
The recent lawsuit filed by Kyle Lee Owens, a 34-year-old man from Iowa, USA, against Nintendo and The Pokémon Company International has been formally dismissed by the Federal District Court. The real Pokémon Professor is not a fictional title in the game, but an official volunteer certification of the Play! Pokémon competition system.
Those who have obtained this qualification can serve as referees for card games, organize offline official activities, and unlock official tools and exclusive rights. The application process includes two stages: a qualification examination and a mandatory background check.
Owens once passed the qualification exam for this project with perfect scores, but a subsequent background check showed that in 2022, he failed to appear in court on time for misdemeanor charges such as criminal damage and disturbing the peace, and was issued an arrest warrant by other states. The Pokémon Company refused to grant him certification on this basis.
Two years after his application was rejected, Owens filed a federal lawsuit in May 2026, citing antitrust laws, asking the court to force him to be granted the status of "Pokémon Doctor" and restore official tool rights. He also demanded US$341,000 in punitive damages. He believed that the official refusal to authenticate was a monopoly and damaged his right to hold Pokémon events.
Judge Leonard Strand, who heard the case, criticized in his ruling that the lawsuit was "full of doubts, if not ridiculous," and was a complete waste of court time and public resources. The judge pointed out that the background check is a hard threshold for the certification program, and Owens failed to pass it, and the official has the right to reject the qualification application.
The court also dismissed three other unrelated lawsuits filed by Owens. The judge also warned the man that if he continues to submit such unreasonable lawsuits without factual basis in the future, he will be fined by the court.
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