Discussion Nintendo is suing Pocket Pair, the creators of Palworld

[DuoForce]

Pal World released into early access in Jan. 2024. It has since drawn a massive amount of attention for its similarities with Pokemon. For a while there has been discourse on whether PalWorld would face legal action. The Pokemon Company issued an official statement saying they have no interest in pursuing any legal action at the time and would need to further investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts on infringement and intellectual property related to Pokemon.

It appears that the investigation from TPC has led to Nintendo filing a lawsuit for Patent Infringement against Pocket Pair Inc. claiming PalWorld infringes on "multiple patents" Nintendo seeks compensation for "damages"

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter), together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. (HQ: 2-10-2 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, “Defendant” hereafter) on September 18, 2024.

This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes 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 properties it has worked hard to establish over the years.

PalWorld has sold more units than nearly every mainline Pokemon game, gaining partnerships from Xbox to assist with game features and updates as well as Sony Japan and Aniplex for merchandising and music related to PalWorld.

 

[LightYearLiam]

The fact that it's over patent rights, which implies this is just about gameplay, makes this totally unsympathetic to me, and I hope Nintendo loses. If this was about the designs, it would be justified. But I don't think visual designs can be patented at all, so it can't be that.

 

[bbb888]

When is Palworld TCG releasing?? I need to get the special art rare of that Charizard-looking-thing!

 

[DuoForce]

The fact that it's over patent rights, which implies this is just about gameplay, makes this totally unsympathetic to me, and I hope Nintendo loses. If this was about the designs, it would be justified. But I don't think visual designs can be patented at all, so it can't be that.

Nintendo abuses the HELL out of patent laws in Japan to the point where simple game features are patented by Nintendo which fucks over other devs in Japan