An Australian online store must pay $1 in damages to Pokemon for selling t-shirts that featured artistic depictions of its most famous critter Pikachu.
Melbourne-based Redbubble allows artist to sell clothes printed with any designs they wish, and many have uploaded their drawings of iconic cartoon characters.
After spotting Pikachu and other characters on Redbubble, the Pokemon Company International sued the online store for copyright infringement, seeking more than $40,000 in damages.
The Federal Court ruled in the Japanese company's favour on Tuesday, but Justice Tony Pagone only awarded the nominal figure of $1 in damages.
That's because the designs were not available for purchase within the official Pokemon universe and would not have yielded royalties, the judge said.
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"Many of the items sold through the Redbubble website involved a 'mash up' of images, such as the combination of Pikachu and Homer Simpson," Justice Pagone said in his judgment.
"The evidence did not support a confident finding of damages in the amount claimed."
Justice Pagone said Redbubble's business model of allowing artists to upload and sell any design made copyright infringements "inevitable".
The store reviewed artist's accounts regularly for intellectual property breaches but only after they had been made available for purchase.
"The business established by Redbubble carried the inherent risk of infringement of copyright," the judge said
"There may have been a sound commercial basis for Redbubble to manage the risks of infringement as it did, but in doing so it authorised the infringements which occurred."
As well as the fiesty, red-cheeked Pikachu, popular characters like Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander, Jigglypuff and Mewtoo were also cited in the lawsuit.
They are among about 800 pocket monsters that have appeared in Pokemon's famous computer games, TV show and card games.
"The animated TV series features the Pokemon characters in the adventures of a 10-year-old boy named Ash and his best friend Pikachu," the judge said in his introduction.
Redbubble was founded in Melbourne in 2006 and grew quickly before floating on the Australian stock exchange in 2016.
It now has offices in San Francisco and in 2016 it recorded a revenue of $115 million.
The company was also ordered to make declarations of copyright infringement and will face a hearing on legal costs at a later date.
