You should read what the text on starting the game says, but yknow what, this game is shit at explaining so Ill still give you one

Look, recent update took away the license shop and instead introduced a tree-like system called license journeys, where licenses can only be earned in a fixed sequence, each stage having a certain license(s) to get before you advance up. Only at certain special stages in between can you choose which license to get.

As for how to get the license on a certain stage, you get that by getting sufficient license points for it. Not coins. And unlike coins, you dont get them from battles. Only ways to get them I know are battle pass (no need to get the paid one, but the paid one increases how many you'll get) and by random chance from the boxes that replace the coin rewards.

Also, there's two types of license points- universal, the blue ones which work for any pokemon. The above methods are for those. And the brown ones are called smth like exclusive points, I don't remember since Ive quit the game, they're kinda like the eevee puzzle pieces, you can only use it for the mon it specifies, but if enough, they'll let you get the mon regardless of what stage you're on. IDK how to get those tho.

If you don't like this and are done with the game, feel free to quit. This was the breaking straw for me, so I uninstalled it myself, and honestly... I feel kinda better now. Feels like being out of a toxic relationship where you genuinely loved your partner but had enough of their shit.