Nintendo Orders Pokemon TCG Shop To Change Its Name

As a huge Pokémon fan, I was surprised to hear that Nintendo is asking a Pokémon TCG store in New York City to change its name. Apparently, they’re being careful about protecting the Pokémon brand and trademark, which makes sense, I guess. The Pokémon TCG is huge – it’s been around for almost 30 years and is one of the most popular card games ever! It’s become a massive part of the whole Pokémon world, with so many cards to collect from all the different sets. And it’s been even more popular lately, which is awesome to see!

The Pokémon Trading Card Game had a successful 2025 and continued that momentum into 2026. Last year started with the release of the highly anticipated ‘Prismatic Evolutions’ set, which featured the Eeveelutions, and included popular expansions like ‘Destined Rivals’ and ‘Phantasmal Flames.’ 2026 began with the launch of ‘Ascended Heroes.’ Unfortunately, one Pokémon shop in the New York area faced difficulties, experiencing a robbery and requiring intervention from Nintendo.

Pokemon TCG Shop Forced to Rebrand by Nintendo

The Poke Court, a Pokemon trading card game shop in New York, is changing its name to The Trainer Court. This comes after Nintendo expressed concerns that the original name and logo, which featured a Poke Ball, were too similar to official Pokemon branding. The shop will update its online store, physical location, and signage with the new name and a new logo—a stylized ‘C’ with a star—moving away from the Poke Ball imagery.

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The recent rebranding of The Trainer Court follows a significant robbery that occurred in January during a popular event. Three armed robbers broke into the store, stealing a large number of trading cards and sealed products. The store shared security camera footage on Instagram showing the robbers smashing display cases. Thankfully, all employees and attendees were unharmed. The increased attention from the incident likely led to contact from Nintendo.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game has become incredibly popular lately, leading to high demand for new releases. Stores like GameStop and Walmart are now limiting how many products customers can buy, as people are quickly reselling them for profit. This surge in popularity has also caused the prices of older, valuable cards to jump dramatically – for example, a special version of Umbreon from the Evolving Skies set is now selling for almost $1,700. The Pokémon Company has responded by promising to print more cards to help address the shortages.

Image via The Pokemon Company

The popular world of Pokémon is continuing its success into 2026, starting with a new card set released in late January. “Ascended Heroes,” released on January 30th, was the biggest Pokémon Trading Card Game set ever, featuring 290 different cards. Another set, “Perfect Order,” is planned for Spring and will introduce the Mega Zygarde Pokémon to the card game. With the franchise gearing up to celebrate its 30th anniversary, fans have even more to look forward to.

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2026-02-23 09:04