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Earlier this week, Nintendo and the Pokémon Company, in which it has a stake, announced they were suing maker of friend worldis a survival crafting MMO that became a hit on Steam and Xbox earlier this year. The companies accused Pocketpair, the studio behind “Overnight”Pokemon and gun” sensation, patent infringement. Although neither party disclosed the specific content friend world Accused of plagiarism, experts are already weighing in Pokemon Mechanics may be at the heart of the debate.
“This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for losses on the grounds that: friend worldA game developed and published by the defendant infringed on multiple patent rights,” Nintendo Announced on September 18. Pocketpair responded the next day. “At this time, we are not aware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing, nor have we been notified of such details,” it wrote. “As a result of this lawsuit, we will be forced to allocate a significant amount of our time to matters unrelated to game development, which is truly unfortunate.”
it It may take several weeks That’s before Nintendo outlines the exact allegations of patent infringement in a follow-up filing, but in the meantime, new reports and analysis have begun to reveal what the company’s main line of legal attack might be, and why it decided to go after Pocketpair in the first place. Although early Internet controversies centered around friend worldThe similarity is that Pokemon The lawsuit filed by Nintendo eight months later involved players’ actual behavior in the game due to its creature design.
One of these is to throw a spherical object at fantasy creatures to capture them and store them inside. Nintendo owns a patent for a version of this mechanism, As recently reported game files. Go into details, Polygon burst into precise language The patent, filed in 2021 and approved last year, specifically covers the following:
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. In the second mode, the aiming direction is determined based on the second operation input, and the player character is caused to launch a combat character fighting based on the third operation input in the aiming direction.
As you can see, it’s not just throwing one thing onto another to capture it inside, but a specific sequence of events based on specific input. We still don’t know if this is one of the actual patents involved in Nintendo’s lawsuit, or how the court will rule. (The case was filed in Japan.) But if so, the timing may be in the Mario Maker’s favor. Given that Pokémon has been around for decades, why did this patent come so late? Probably because it won’t appear until 2022 Pokémon Legends: Arceus One game actually involves players catching Pokémon with Poké Balls in such a 3D space.
Japanese patent lawyer Kiyoshi Kurihara recently stated Yahoo Japanaccording to a translator automatic machine westNintendo and The Pokémon Company applied for follow-up “divisional” patents based on the above-mentioned patents earlier this year and requested expedited review. One of the patents was approved last month. Kurihara said this may be part of a strategy to block Pocketpair’s patent language before taking legal action against it for infringement.
This isn’t the first time Nintendo has sued another Japanese video game company for patent infringement. Back to 2017which targeted mobile studio Colopl’s Japanese smartphone game white cat project Suspected of patent infringement related to “special technology for operating joysticks on touch screens”. Both sides finally reach a settlementColopl paid Nintendo approximately $20 million. Serkan Toto, an industry analyst at consulting firm Kantan Games, pointed out this example in a report. Interview of the week 404 media.
“First of all, this lawsuit was brought under Japanese law, so it has nothing to do with the United States and absolutely nothing to do with British or EU law,” he said. “The second thing is, I think Nintendo took the time to really build the case, map out everything, including the counter-arguments the other side might make in the lawsuit, and how to counter them and make absolutely sure that they thought they thought they would before filing the lawsuit. win.
Toto painted a somewhat scary picture that Pocketpair might have a chance at beating Nintendo given its track record, and suggested the timing of the lawsuit could be tied to the Tokyo Game Show. Pocketpair expected to release PlayStation 5 version friend world A few months ago, a joint venture was formed with Sony to expand and commercialize intellectual property rights. Sony has so far declined to comment on the lawsuit.
“You can bet your life that Nintendo hates this company. They can’t find the character design angle,” Toto said. “That’s why there’s no mention of them in their press release. So they have these technical features.” He added that he believed the goal was to hurt Pocketpair financially. It’s unclear exactly how much money the game made, but it has reached Got it 19 million players Soon after launch, it was included through Game Pass as part of a deal with Microsoft.
Once Nintendo speaks out against Pocketpair, we’ll see the final outcome. Meanwhile, the company has kept its secrets secret. “We are filing this lawsuit at this time after carefully investigating the contents of this lawsuit,” the company said in a statement. “We will refrain from commenting on topics related to the contents of the lawsuit.”