[Update: Added Nintendo comment]

Nintendo has reportedly warned a number of prominent Pokémon fansites that they face closure under the terms of the Digital Milennium Copyright Act unless they remove images of Pokémon Black & White, which is out now in Japan but not until spring 2011 in the West.

“We recently learned that you have posted screenshots and other protected content from the Pokémon Black and Pokémon White games to your website,” the firm said in a letter to sites including the newly named Pokerbeach – formerly Pokebeach - and Serebii.

“While Nintendo appreciates your interest in and support of the Pokémon game series, your publication of this content infringes Nintendo’s copyrights in violation of federal law. Your activity also and has the potential to cause substantial damage to Nintendo, and leaves Nintendo with no choice but to take steps to protect its intellectual property rights.

“We have accordingly submitted a copyright infringement notice to your domain registrar under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and anticipate that your website will be taken down shortly.”

Clearly annoyed by Nintendo’s heavy-handed approach, Pokerbeach suggests that the platform holder's lawyers should be focusing on combating rampant DS piracy rather than hounding fansites. “Why go after the big guys when you can waste your lawyers’ time on small fan sites that only help your franchise?” the publication says sarcastically.

As far as we’re aware, a mere two pieces of Pokémon Black & White artwork (pictured) have been released to western games press for online use, although a simple web search appears to turn up multiple images and videos of the game.

We have contacted Nintendo to confirm the accuracy of these reports and to ask for any additional comment.

Today the company responded with the following statement: "Nintendo supports and appreciates the efforts that Pokémon fans go through to create fan sites. In most cases there is no issue with the content that is posted, but on this occasion we had to contact a select few websites to ask them to take down confidential images."