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nintendo palworld lawsuit depicting an image of pokemon and palworld with the Nintendo logo.

Nintendo vs. Palworld Lawsuit

Part of a series on Palworld. [View Related Entries]

Updated Sep 19, 2024 at 02:50PM EDT by Zach.

Added Sep 19, 2024 at 11:14AM EDT by Adam.

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Overview

Nintendo vs. Palworld Lawsuit refers to Nintendo's patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developers PocketPair. News of the lawsuit confirmed many gamers' suspicions that Nintendo would bring legal action against Palworld due to the video game's similarities to the Pokémon franchise. However, Nintendo has stated its lawsuit is for "patent infringement," not copyright, leading to speculation about how the lawsuit will develop. While initial online discourse about Nintendo possibly suing PocketPair emerged in early 2024 following Palworld's release, discussions about the controversy spread significantly in September 2024 after Nintendo announced the patent infringement lawsuit.

Background

When Palworld was released in January 2024, numerous gamers suspected that Nintendo, an infamously litigious company, would likely bring legal action against Palworld developers PocketPair due to multiple "Pals" having similar designs to preexisting Pokémon. Shortly after Palworld's release, The Pokémon Company stated in January 2024 that it was "investigating any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon." This seemed to confirm that Nintendo and The Pokémon Company were prepping legal action against Palworld.

On September 18th, 2024, Nintendo then announced that it had filed a "patent infringement lawsuit" against PocketPair,[1] writing, "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."

This announcement was notably posted to the company's official X / Twitter account that same day, receiving over 1.7 million views, 3,000 likes, 1,400 retweets and 430 replies in one day.


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

Developments

On September 19th, 2024, PocketPair responded to the lawsuit in a Twitter post,[2] writing, "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." The post gained over 4,700 retweets and 32,000 likes in a matter of hours (full statement shown below).


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


Online, gamers were split on how to take the news, with some believing Palworld was guilty of infringing on the Pokémon IP while others felt Nintendo was being overly litigious.

For example, in the former camp, Twitter user @cricketadam[3] wrote on September 18th that Palworld had clearly knocked off Pokémon designs, gaining over 100 retweets and 550 likes in one day.


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

In the latter cap, Twitter user @DJBawlzy[4] wrote on September 18th that Palworld posed no threat to the Pokémon IP, gaining over 110 retweets and 795 likes in one day.


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

There has been some speculation as to what "patent" Nintendo owned that Palworld may have violated. Some speculated that Palworld may have violated a patent Nintendo had on monster-catching mechanics,[5] though that has not been clarified as of September 19th, 2024 (Nintendo's catching mechanic patent shown below).


STORAGE MEDIUM STORING GAME PROGRAM, GAME SYSTEM, GAME APPARATUS, AND GAME PROCESSING METHOD Publication number: 20240278129 Abstract: In a first mode, an aiming direction in a virtual space is determined based on a second operation input, and a player character is caused to launch, in the aiming direction, an item that affects a field character disposed on a field in the virtual space, based on a third operation input. In a second mode, the aiming direction is determined, based on the second operation input, and the player character is caused to launch, in the aiming direction, a fighting character that fights, based on the third operation input. Type: Application Filed: May 2, 2024 Publication date: August 22, 2024 Applicants: NINTENDO CO., LTD., The Pokémon Company Inventor: Kazumasa IWAO

Search Interest

External References

[1] Nintendo – Filing Lawsuit for Infringement of Patent Rights
against Pocketpair, Inc.

[2] Twitter – PalworldEN

[3] Twitter – cricketadam

[4] Twitter -DJBawlzy

[5] Twitter – destructionset

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Mistress Fortune
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Mistress Fortune

The fact it's a patent infringement case instead of copyright is what's shocking many. I can imagine this being settled out of court for an undisclosed amount and Palworld has a major update to change whatever patents are being claimed to be infringed upon (like if it is the capture sphere they could change them to some kind of different looking device). Also fact this happened many months after Palworld's initial popularity boom does kinda tell me the legal team were doing some DEEP digging to see if there was anything they could actually use in court.

There's also the conspiracy side where some folk are (mostly jokingly) wondering if Nintendo only took action to distract people from the leaked Switch 2 prototype images from the other day.

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