Palworld draws Nintendo's ire as Pokémon developer sues over patent infringements — Pocketpair plays dumb
Anyone that's followed the launch and subsequent meteoric success of Palworld will know it was only a matter of time before Nintendo came after the game's developer, Pocketpair, in some form or another, and it appears the day of reckoning has arrived. Nintendo just announced in a news release and a subsequent post on X that it and the Pokémon company are suing Pocketpair over patent infringements.
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.
In January 2024, long before Nintendo even filed the suit against Pocketpair, a user on X discovered some rather damning evidence that Palworld almost directly ripped off several 3D models from Nintendo's Pokémon games. The conclusion @byofrog came to was that it was likely the Palworld models were not directly copied, but the 3D artists modelled over the Pokémon models, with some minor modifications to set them apart.
Despite the obvious similarities, Pocketpair's response to Nintendo's lawsuit claims the company is “unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon” and that it has “not been notified of such details.”
The lawsuit was filed with the Tokyo District Court in Japan, where the average length of a patent infringement case — from filing to the first judgement — is 15.2 months, so it will be a while before the outcome of the case is known. Whatever the outcome, the lawsuit will no doubt solidify Nintendo's reputation for lawsuits, which has even inspired its own website chronicling Nintendo's storied legal history. Just earlier this year, Nintendo struck a massive blow to the game emulation community when it managed to take down Yuzu, a popular Switch emulator.
Although Palworld previously peaked at well over two million players, it has since settled at around 20,000–30,000 players, which still makes it a very popular game, according to Steam Charts data.
Check out the Nintendo Switch OLED (curr. $338.69 on Amazon) or go the emulator route instead, with the Asus ROG Ally X (curr. $799.99 at Best Buy).
We posted the News Release "Filing Lawsuit for Infringement of Patent Rights against Pocketpair, Inc."https://t.co/76ttENZXtv
— 任天堂株式会社（企業広報・IR） (@NintendoCoLtd) September 18, 2024
Regarding the Lawsuit
— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) September 19, 2024
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…
This "pal" from #Palword seems like it was probably a rip of serperior and primarina from #Pokemon pic.twitter.com/g8L8vBjbDG
— byo (@byofrog) January 21, 2024
Source(s)
Nintendo news release:
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 Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years.
Pocketpair's response news release:
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 for your continued support of Palworld and Pocketpair.
