Pokémon is a media franchise owned by video game giant Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri around 1995. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative videogame-based media franchise in the world, falling only behind Nintendo's Mario series. Pokémon properties have since been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books, and other media. The franchise celebrated its tenth anniversary on 27 February 2006, and as of 1 December 2006, cumulative sold units of the video games (including home console versions, such as the "Pikachu" Nintendo 64) have reached more than 155 million copies.

The name Pokémon is the romanized contraction of the Japanese brand, "Pocket Monsters", as such contractions are very common in Japan. The term "Pokémon", in addition to referring to the Pokémon franchise itself, also collectively refers to the 493 fictional species that have made appearances in Pokémon media as of the recent release of the newest Pokémon role-playing games (RPGs) for the Nintendo DS, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. As with the words deer and sheep, the singular and plural forms of the word "Pokémon" do not differ, nor does each individual species name; in short, it is grammatically correct to say both "one Pokémon" and "many Pokémon". Nintendo originally translated Poketto Monsuta literally, but a naming conflict with the Monster in My Pocket toy line caused Nintendo to rebrand the franchise as "Pokémon" in early 1996.[citation needed] The game's catchphrase in the Japanese language versions of the franchise is (Pokémon Getto Daze! - Let's Get Pokémon!)"[citation needed]; in English language versions of the franchise, it was originally "Gotta catch 'em all!," although it is now no longer officially used except in the sidestory episodes airing under the name Pokémon Chronicles.

In November 2005, 4Kids Entertainment, which had managed the non-game related licensing of Pokémon, announced that it had agreed not to renew the Pokémon representation agreement. Pokémon USA Inc., a subsidiary of Japan's Pokémon Co., now oversees all Pokémon licensing outside of Asia.

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