Could Pokemon Company issue exact WOTC reprints, with the exact same copyright text on the cards? Rather than a close WOTC reprint with ‘25th’ on it, for instance. I don’t know anything about where they stand legally with WOTC on this. Thanks
Could one company legally print another companies copyright and mass print it? No lol. At the very bare minimum they’d have to completely change the copyright info, but there’s probably more involved than that
Could they buy that copyright back for the WOTC Pokemon cards? I appreciate that whether Pokemon or WOTC would be inclined to make that deal is a very different question! Perhaps ‘could they’ is too broad. Realistically, would it ever happen given the companies’ current and future plans.
Of course nothing is 100% certain, but they won’t
It ain’t gonna happen is it. Say they predicted they’d sell X number amended reprints and Y number of exact reprints. With a disparity that might justify the legal costs of claiming it back. Then they’d have to weigh up the pros and cons of pissing off the core collector base. Potentially they’d widen the market in the short term but at a massive cost.
They can´t put an entirely different company name on these cards, so short answer: no.
The first acronym in your title kind of answers its own question.
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Nope. That would be an absolute mess of a copyright and licensing showdown.
Could there be an eventual arrangement worked out where both parties come to a mutually beneficial conclusion? Yes, there’s always a chance. But it’s slim.