12 hours ago
1
🧑⚖️ Nintendo has accused developer Pocketpair of infringing multiple patents
📆 The Japanese company filed a lawsuit on September 18
🤔 Palworld was previously accused of copying several Pokémon designs
🤷♂️ However, no legal action has been taken by Nintendo until now
Nintendo is suing Pocketpair, the developer of the hit game Palworld. Described as Pokémon with guns, Palworld was widely accused of copying the designs of Nintendo’s famous pocket monsters when it launched in January of this year. However, no lawsuit was forthcoming from the Japanese company.
At Summer Game Fest, the game’s creator Takuro Mizobe recently confirmed to Game File that Nintendo and The Pokémon Company had not followed up on their initial threat to “investigate” Palworld for any content it believes may “infringe on intellectual property right”. But it seems that Nintendo’s lawyers were biding their time.
Nintendo isn’t suing Pocketpair for copyright infringement, as many would have assumed. Instead, it’s alleging that Palworld infringes on “multiple patent rights.”
Nintendo posted a public statement on its website, confirming it had filed a patent infringement lawsuit in a Tokyo court as of yesterday, September 18.
The statement says: “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 is currently available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, but the game is also set to release on PS5. The game enjoyed a tremendously successful launch, reaching over 10 million players on console and over 15 million on Steam.
Pocketpair has responded to Nintendo’s lawsuit. The company posted the following statement on X:
”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.”
Nintendo is notoriously litigious and protective of its IP. The company has a strong track record of winning its claims and isn’t afraid to set punishing precedents that some gamers find unfair or unwarranted.
However, it’s unclear what patents Pocketpair may have infringed, with some legal commentators believing Nintendo might not have the strongest case.
We’ve seen developers try to sue games in the past for copying gameplay elements, with PUBG’s lawsuit against Epic over Fortnite being the most recent. The suit alleged Epic had copied ideas from PUBG, notably its ‘Battle Royale’ structure where 100 players descend on an island and fight until only one remains.
The lawsuit was quickly withdrawn, even though most would struggle to deny that Fortnite did copy many elements that made PUBG a success.
Nintendo may have to prepare another lawsuit over a recent Nintendo Switch 2 leak. The console’s specs and design seem to have been shared by a Chinese website, but Nintendo has, perhaps unexpectedly, refrained from commenting.
Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.
.png)
English (US) ·