Pokémon Black and white were tradmarked back in 2009.
https://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Nintendo_registers_swarm_of_Pokémon_trademarks
>>33458593
Nice.
Yes, and Emerald, Diamond, and Pearl were registered all at once. Your point?
>>33458858
their point is probably that we would've seen the switch game titles by now
but then again
iirc sun and moon didn't get trademarked until a day before its reveal, and that's how we first learned about it
>>33458864
The thing is, internet news didnt travel as fast back then. Viruses were everywhere and the pokemon fandom was still relatively young. Normies couldn't keep their PCs functional long enough to have the luxury of browsing random sites and those turbo autist enough to find news didnt often share it outside their small communities. Black and White were the first games to really reach widespread internet news thanks to social media and better virus protection efforts