Millions of dollars of goods have already been seized in North America including counterfeit toys, plush animals, stickers, trading cards and video games at border crossings and retail locations in San Francisco, Honolulu, New Jersey, Toronto and Vancouver, B.C. Targets for the new efforts will include manufacturers, distributors, importers and retailers. In addition, Nintendo will train customs agents and store personnel on how to better identify counterfeit products.

Richard Flamm, General Counsel, Nintendo of America announced, "As the popularity of Pokemon soars, potential losses from that franchise alone cost the merchants and the licensees millions of dollars. Nintendo is committed to an aggressive campaign to prevent the illegal importation of these infringing products.''

The popularity of Pokemon is based on the concept of collecting, developing and trading over 150 separate characters. Introduced originally in Japan for Nintendo's hand held Game Boy video game system, the craze in the U.S. this year will expand to the Nintendo 64 home console. Its unprecedented popularity will continue to increase through a wide range of popular franchised products including trading cards, toys, and a six-day-a-week network cartoon show.