When Palworld launched six months ago and became a huge hit, we all waited with baited breath to see if Nintendo would unleash their legal hounds on Palworld. After all, Palworld is heavily inspired by Pokémon, although it also plays very differently. Nintendo is often seen as one of the most litigious companies in gaming. Surprisingly, however, while Nintendo did publicly say they were investing in Palworld, nothing ultimately came of it. so far.
Nintendo of America has officially sued Pocketpair, the developer of Palworld, claiming it infringed on “multiple patent rights.” This is surprising since most people assume that any legal action would be based on infringement.
Nintendo said in a very brief statement: “This lawsuit seeks an injunction enjoining the infringement and compensating damages based on: friend worldA game developed and published by the defendant infringed multiple patent rights. Nintendo will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights, including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual property rights it has worked hard to establish over the years.
Nintendo did not elaborate on the specific patents that Palworld allegedly infringed.
Pocketpair has publicly responded to the accusations, even calling the coming battle “to ensure that independent game developers are not hindered or discouraged in pursuing their ideas.”
“At this time, we are not aware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing and have not been informed of such details.” read the official statement.
“Pocketpair is a small independent game company based in Tokyo. As a company, our goal has always been to create fun games. We will continue to pursue this goal because we know that our games bring joy to millions of gamers around the world Palworld has been an unexpected success for gamers and us this year. We’ve been blown away by the amazing response to the game and have been working hard to make the game an even better experience for our fans. Improve Palworld and strive to create a game that our fans can be proud of.
This legal battle should be an interesting one, even for a layman like me. Despite being dubbed a Pokemon with guns, Palworld doesn’t actually play a game like Pokemon other than catching creatures with balls. However, quite a few of the creature designs in Palworld have been accused of being copies of existing Pokémon, with some modifications.
I think the case may revolve around claims that the Pocketpair infringes on the ability to capture creatures with balls, a patent that Nintendo actually owns. Just for fun, this is Nintendo’s patented act of throwing Poké Balls. It’s interesting trying to understand it because it’s very vague.
“In the first mode, the aiming direction in the virtual space is determined based on the second operation input, and the player character is caused to launch items affecting the field character arranged on the field in the virtual space along the aiming direction. The space is based on the first Three operation inputs. In the second mode, the aiming direction is determined based on the second operation input, and the player character is caused to launch the combat character in the aiming direction based on the third operation input.
Other games that use some form of creature capture and/or summoning are very careful to avoid using balls or similar things for fear of incurring Nintendo’s wrath.
Pocketpair made a lot of cash from Palworld’s runaway success, but that was nothing compared to Nintendo, and even if Nintendo didn’t win the war, the battle would likely destroy Pocketpair. The best-case scenario for Pocketpair might be to try to settle the case, but if Nintendo thinks they have a strong argument, they might look to crush Pocketpair entirely to send a message. After all, we know Nintendo can be ruthless when it comes to taking legal action.
