After strangers have been lingering outside his home to catch virtual Pokémon for the past month, Jeffrey Marder, of West Orange, New Jersey has filed a class action lawsuit in federal court against Niantic Inc, Nintendo, and the Pokémon Company.

Marder claims that multiple individuals have been lingering outside of his property in hopes of catching “Pokémon” in the new game, “Pokémon Go,” that was released last month. The class action represents others who have had virtual Pokémon stops placed on their property as well.

Once strangers approached Marder to ask if they could catch Pokémon in his backyard, he filed the lawsuit. His attorney, Jennifer Pafiti states: “At least five individuals knocked on Plaintiff’s door and asked for access to Plaintiff’s backyard in order to ‘catch’ Pokémon that the game had placed at Plaintiff’s residence in West Orange, New Jersey — without Plaintiff’s permission. Defendants have shown a flagrant disregard for the foreseeable consequences of populating the real world with virtual Pokémon without seeking the permission of property owners.”

This real-time location-based game allows users to reap rewards for visiting sites known as “Pokestops” to catch Pokémon. The problem is that these “Pokestops” are essentially everywhere around the globe. Several historical locations such as Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan and Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C have asked to be removed from Pokémon Go.

Last week, J.C. Smith, The Pokémon Company’s consumer marketing director, told the Associated Press that the company is constantly making updates and improvements to the game to respect the real world.

Spokespeople for the defendants were not available to comment on the class action lawsuit.

URL: http://news.findlaw.com/apnews/b3f125a6e1cf48a388496232c3a246b9 -Associated Press
By: Associated Press
Source: Findlaw.com