nintendo pocketpair / pokemon palworld lawsuit explained

What's Going On With Nintendo's 'Palworld' Lawsuit? The Story Of 'Pokemon VS. Pocketpair' So Far Explained

When Palworld released in January 2024, many felt it was only a matter of time before the notoriously litigious arms of Nintendo went after it.

The monsters in the video game appear to be clearly "inspired" by the designs of Pokémon, to the point where many felt Palworld developers Pocketpair had basically copied Pokémon, though the gameplay between Pocketpair and Palworld was quite different.


Nintendo signaled it was looking into Palworld shortly after the game's release, and last week, the hammer finally dropped, as Nintendo announced it was suing Pocketpair. Still, the content of the lawsuit left many player's eyebrows raised.

Here's what's going on with the Nintendo vs. Palworld lawsuit and how the internet has been reacting to it so far.

What Is Nintendo Suing Pocketpair For?

On September 18th, Nintendo announced that it was suing Palworld developers Pocketpair — but not for copyright infringement, instead, it was going after the devs for "patent infringement."

Nintendo 任天堂株式会社 (企業広報・IR) Corporate @NintendoCo Ltd We posted the News Release "Filing Lawsuit for Infringement of Patent Rights against Pocketpair, Inc." Nintendo nintendo.co.jp News Release: Sep. 19, 2024 "Filing Lawsuit for Infringemen Press release of Nintendo Co., Ltd. 7:30 PM Sep 18, 2024

This surprised readers, as Nintendo is not suing Pocketpair for nicking Pokémon designs, even though the designs of some of the "Pals" seemed nearly 1-for-1 replicas of Pokémon.

What patent Pocketpair allegedly infringed upon is unknown at this time, and the company itself didn't know what patent it infringed upon when it released its statement about the matter.

Palworld @Palworld_EN Regarding the Lawsuit Yesterday, a lawsuit was filed against our company for patent infringement. We have received notice of this lawsuit and will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement. At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details. Pocketpair is a small indie game company based in Tokyo. Our goal as a company 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 was a surprise success this year, both for gamers and for us. We were blown away by the amazing response to the game and have been working hard to make it even better for our fans. We will continue improving Palworld and strive to create a game that our fans can be proud of. It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas. We apologize to our fans and supporters for any worry or discomfort that this news has caused. As always, thank you Pocketpair. for your continued support of Palworld and

There is speculation that Nintendo is going after Pocketpair for Palworld's monster catching system, which is similar to that used in titles like Pokémon Legends Arceus and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, but Nintendo got a patent for such mechanics after Palworld's release.

At this time, all guesses as to what patent Nintendo is suing Pocketpair for are merely speculation.

What Has Been The Online Reaction To The Lawsuit?

In the West, gamers seem fairly split on how to take the lawsuit. There are some ardent defenders of Pocketpair, others on Nintendo's side and a sizable chunk of people in the middle who believe Pocketpair was likely infringing on Pokémon, but were ambivalent on Nintendo's mysterious "patent infringement" lawsuit.

adam @cricketadam Palworld defenders will tell you they didn't copy Pokemon until they're blue in the face but a lot of the Pals are literally just knock-off Pokemon and if you can't see that you're being purposely blind. 4 DiscussingFilm | @DiscussingFilm • 15h Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a lawsuit against the developer of 'PALWORLD' The lawsuit seeks an "injunction against infringement & compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld infringes multiple patent rights"... Show more 7:49 PM Sep 18, 2024

Plucky Bawlzy @DJBawlzy Dear @NintendoAmerica this is a c t move. You have been making half baked badly performing Pokemon games for 8 years now. And yet you still hold a Monopoly on that genre of game. Palworld holds no threat to your public image or game shares. Wario64 @Wario64 • 16h Nintendo w/ The Pokemon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair Inc. This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Show more September 19, 2024 To Whom It May Concern The Pokémon Company Nintendo Co., Ltd. Filing Lawsuit for Infringement of Patent Rights against Pocketpair, Inc. 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


Interestingly, Japanese social media seems less conflicted about the lawsuit and firmly on the side of Nintendo, according to reports.

Japanese Fans Are Siding With Nintendo Over The Pocket Pair Lawsuit Ollie Barder Contributor → Ollie Barder covers Japanese pop- culture and gaming from Tokyo. Follow : 0 Sep 21, 2024, 05:44am EDT The Japanese reaction to the Pocket Pair lawsuit ... POCKET PAIR [+]


What Are The Likely Outcomes Of The Nintendo-Palworld Lawsuit?

At this point, legal experts are unsure of the strengths of Nintendo's case because the patent they are suing Pocketpair over is unknown.

However, Nintendo's history of crushing those who run afoul of their copyright with litigation leaves little room for optimism for Palworld. It seems likely that the case will be settled out of court for a significant sum of money.

GamesRadar spoke to lawyer Haley MacLean who argued that the lawsuit could be seen as an exercise in Nintendo's strength.

In essence, MacLean says, Nintendo's lawsuit is their way of saying, "Look what we did to this guy, don’t cross us and we won’t do it to you too."



For the full history of the Nintendo vs. Palworld Lawsuit, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.




Comments (0)

Display Comments

Additional comments have been disabled.


Namaste! You must login or signup first!