The Pokémon Company (Pokémon USA)

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The Pokémon Company
株式会社ポケモン
Type Affiliate of Nintendo
Founded 1998
2001 (USA branch)
Headquarters Tokyo, Japan
New York City, USA
Seattle, Washington, USA
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
London, UK
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people Akira Chiba
Bruce Loeb
Kei Taoka
Maya Nakamura
Paul Baron
Lawrence Neves
John Hershberger
Satoshi Tajiri (Japanese Branch)
Chris Brixey
Industry Licensing
Products Pokémon
Employees US Branch: 100 (2006)
Website http://www.pokemon.co.jp/ http://www.pokemon.com/

The Pokémon Company (株式会社ポケモン Kabushiki-gaisha Pokemon?) is an affiliate[1] of Nintendo set up as a marketing and licensing front for the highly successful Pokémon franchise. The video games, Pokémon Trading Card Game, and licensed toys are still being made by third and second party companies such as Game Freak and TOMY. According to their timeline, operations began in 1998 with the opening of Pokémon Center in Tokyo, before the actual trademark of "Pokémon, Ltd." was established in 2000. Since then, Nintendo has been marketing this branch as "The Pokémon Company". The US branch (Pokémon USA, Inc) opened in 2001 to handle licensing overseas. [2]

Since 2001, nearly all licensed Pokémon products have ©Pokémon in the copyright acknowledgments with the usual three of ©Nintendo, ©Game Freak, and ©Creatures, Inc.

As of December 31, 2007, Pokémon USA's president, Akira Chiba has stepped down. Chiba is replaced by Kenji Okubo, previously executive vice president and head of Pokémon USA’s Seattle office, effective January 1, 2008. Okubo will manage Pokémon’s operations in New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Toronto, and London, and will oversee all Pokémon initiatives outside of Japan including the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the long-running animated TV series, North American and European licensing and the recently launched, Pokémon Trading Figure Game. Prior to joining Pokémon USA in 2004, Okubo worked for Nintendo in Redmond, WA, as well as The Pokémon Company headquarters in Tokyo, Japan as director of international business. [1]

Contents

[edit] Listed credits

[edit] Games

[edit] Anime

[edit] Television Series

[edit] Anime Movies

[edit] Television Specials

[edit] References

  1. ^ President of Pokemon USA, Inc. to Step Down