This week, Internet sleuths noted that Nintendo, Pokemon series developer Game Freak, and Creatures, Inc. (a developer affiliated with The Pokemon Company) have jointly filed a new trademark for something called “monpoké.” The trademarked term is also accompanied by a logo which features four differently colored Poke Balls on a white background. There is a red/white Poke Ball (the default coloring), as well as a green/blue Poke Ball, an orange/yellow Poke Ball, and a pink/purple Poke Ball.
It’s unclear exactly what this trademark is for. The filing reportedly encompasses several categories ranging from software all the way to beards. Either Nintendo and co. are aiming to cover all bases and monpoké is an especially ambitious project or the three companies are being purposefully opaque in order to keep the true nature of the project a secret (for now).
But despite the secrecy, this hasn’t stopped fans from speculating about what it may involve. One popular suggestion is that this is for a new line of Pokemon merchandise, specifically apparel. The different colors of Poke Balls could refer to different colors of clothing or even the ability the customize Pokemon-themed clothing, NIKEiD style. Pokemon fans enjoy customizing their own plush toys with the franchise’s Build-A-Bear range so it’s reasonable to think that they’d love to customize their own threads too.
Others though are adamant that this must be for some sort of game project. If this was just a Pokemon merchandise project, wouldn’t only Nintendo or The Pokemon Company be involved? The involvement of not just Game Freak but Creatures, Inc. has left some feeling confident that the term monpoké refers to an actual Pokemon game, rather than a collectible. Creatures is responsible for several Pokemon spin-off games including Detective Pikachu (which is being turned into a movie) and Pokemon Dream Radar, and it even helped out with Pokemon modeling on Pokemon GO. It will be interesting to see which theory turns out to be correct.
Source: Serebii
