I was having an interesting conversation yesterday with a cousin who is a huge Nintendo fan and someone who used to practice law. 

The conversation started off about how amazing the mini NES is and eventually ended up on talking about the shares, Pokemon Go and lawsuits.

One of my biggest concerns is a law suit being filed against Nintendo due to something Pokemon Go related. E.g.

A pedophile used the app to lure kids or find kids eventually leading to something happening to the kid.

It may sound silly but we've seen with CS:GO, people will take advantage of situations and it's only a matter of time before something goes wrong and lawyers are brought in. 

There are already several headlines about Pokemon Go causing people to do stupid things or people lashing out because their property has been surrounded by Pokemon Go players. It won't be long before someone somewhere makes it a legal thing.

My cousin claims, since the app wasn't created by Nintendo and Nintendo doesn't fully own Pokemon, they will be safe from being sued successfully as they have guarded themselves from being directly involved. 

What do you folk think? Additionally, since Pokemon is a critical war chest for Nintendo, can they be sued and how would it affect Nintendo if Pokemon were successfully sued? 

Most importantly, what needs to be done for Nintendo to make sure they safeguard themselves?

It won't work anyway. What people do, during their phone use. Is their fault. Because, the lawsuit can easily put blame on all the companies who's built the phone, too. By this shitty logic. The one thing I've learned from the court system. It's damn easy to file paper work to start a lawsuit. When you try to use this form of BS logic. It will go out the door, from the judge.

The pedophile case. So what's the excuse for where the parents were? Did the parents teach the kids to not talk to people that make you unconfortable etc. It's the parents fault, to begin with. For all the injuries. Do you blame your car, when you stop in the middle of the road, get out, and look for Pikachu? The property owners really have to just call the police, or put a sign up stating go players aren't allowed. At most, file a complaint to Nantic. And have the stop removed. Not a lawsuit.

"Most importantly, what needs to be done for Nintendo to make sure they safeguard themselves?"

Put a generic warning on the bottom of the main menu. Just like how Mcdonalds had to put a retarded drink is hot bullshit warning on their cups.

The games starts every time with "Yo, look up, mother fucker, pay attention and shit."

That's the exact quote.

You don't know the full context of that story, do you?

I do, and it's a shame what happend. Poor lady. 

Still, lots of silly warnings on stuff, especially in the US to avoid being sued.

What do you do for a living? Because it appears to me that you're using common sense and things in court are way more complicated than that. Just because something sounds BS to you, doesn't mean that the legal system will treat it that way.

I think there are some genuine things to take into consideration:

1) many countries have a form of child safeguarding policies and laws;

2) logic isn't what always wins in courts. Sometimes it is emotions that win the day especially if a jury gets to decide;

3) it can be argued that warnings aren't sufficient and more should have been done since the game encourages you to explore beyond your home;

4) it can be argued that the app allows you to harass people by attracting Pokemon to their home / business and therfore cause a disturbance;

I personally think it's a good thing Nintendo are distancing themselves from the app as much as they can. It might be partially due to some of the things which have happened and at least now they can say they are not responsible and have pointed it out on several occasions.

Good. I remember reading about it, and I feel awful whenever someone brings it up.

Shouldn't they sue Niantic? They um...made the game. They uh...just licensed the IP and are currently making a device where : YOU DONT NEED TO HAVE YOUR PHONE OUT TO CATCH POKEMON: IE: POKEMON GO PLUS!

But Nintendo didn't make the game. Why would someone sue Nintendo specifically?