When Palworld released into early access back in January of this year, it drew attention for its similarities to Pokemon. Some called into question whether or not the developers of Palword, Pocketpair Inc, would come under fire, but The Pokemon Company issued an official statement that they had no plans at the time to pursue legal action, and would need to, "investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon."

It appears that the investigation from The Pokemon Company has led to the decision of indeed filing a lawsuit against Pocketpair Inc, claiming that Palworld infringes on "multiple patent rights". Nintendo is seeking an injunction and 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.

After reaching more than 20 million sales on Steam, Pocketpair and Xbox had partnered up to assist with development on Palworld's features and updates. They had also partnered with Sony Japan and Aniplex for merchandizing and music relating to Palworld.

Source

 

[Bladexdsl]

took them long enough

 

[Robert Newbie]

For those that have played the game, does it in fact infringe on Pokemon? Like, do the designs of the monsters look close? Are the shooting mechanics the same as the Pokemon games? Do the environments resemble locations from Pokemon? I await an expert's response.

 

[Quore]

No fucking way this day has come

 

[KingVamp]

I hope they lose. They are doing this, instead of making a better Pokemon game.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Just to point out, this is patent infringement, not copyright infringement.

 

[Domestica]

I don’t fully understand copyright law and all that, but does Nintendo really have the jurisdiction to even issue something like this? I mean, THE Pokémon Company is obviously well aware of its existence, and didn’t really do anything. Again, I’ve probably got a wrong, but for Nintendo to do something like this way after this games release makes it look like they were just bored, and needed something to do.

 

[RetroNerdGamer]

That's absolutely STUPID.

Sour grapes, they're angry someones doing what they don't.

It took them way too long to do this I think it's desperation because when did this come out? January? Hope they lose.

 

[CeeDee]

I'm just here for the drama.

 

[anhminh]

I hope they lose. They are doing this, instead of making a better Pokemon game.

Yeah, wtf Game Freak? This isn't the time to sue anyone. We need those lawyers for the development of your new game, not for your silly law suit.

 

[RetroNerdGamer]

For those that have played the game, does it in fact infringe on Pokemon? Like, do the designs of the monsters look close? Are the shooting mechanics the same as the Pokemon games? Do the environments resemble locations from Pokemon? I await an expert's response.

Some designs are a bit close but not enough for this (if it were it would have been way sooner IMO) and the enviornments... thats a toughie to answer if you get what i mean. It could but honetsly I'd say it's more BOTW or open world type games than Pokemon.
Also there's no shooting mechanics in Pokemon games and I hope that was satirical lol

Post automatically merged: Sep 19, 2024

Yeah, wtf Game Freak? This isn't the time to sue anyone. We need those lawyers for the development of your new game, not for your silly law suit.

I guess what they mean is that instead of wasting time/money on lawyers n shit for a lawsuit they could be working on the new pokemon game.

 

[BlueFox gui]

For those that have played the game, does it in fact infringe on Pokemon? Like, do the designs of the monsters look close? Are the shooting mechanics the same as the Pokemon games? Do the environments resemble locations from Pokemon? I await an expert's response.

from what i've seen, some monster designs are TOO close to actual pokemon designs, and not like, "oh pokemon didn't invent dogs", its like, design choices/details taken from actual pokemon, it also looks like some monsters are like "fusions" of existing pokemon, its kinda funny how long it took for nintendo to do something lol

 

[Bladexdsl]

they are just pissed because palworld is a lot more popular than their generic pokecrap they keep churning out. palworld is mocking them and they are throwing a tantrum over it so send in the suits. what a truly pathetic company they have turned into with fuckuwara in charge

 

[AkitoUF]

Yeah right, like they invented the monster catching genre.

 

[Asia81]

I'm just here for the drama.

View attachment 459130

Same, i dont care about palword

 

[Xzi]

This does seem straight-up petty after waiting so long. Like Nintendo just needed to find some new way to justify the expense of their massively-expanded legal department, which probably dwarfs the size of their game development department at this point.

 

[MysticStarlight]

Wow. I didn't think they would do it.

 

[DJPlace]

you never cease to amaze me nintendo you never do with stuff like this. i wonder if they are sueining just to keep it kid friendly.

 

[Silterpy]

I think this is dumb. At this point Nintendo might as well sue every dev that added a monster capture mechanic to their game

 

[codezer0]

This is about as clinically stupid as Bungie trying to sue what's left of Argonaut software claiming they invented the twin stick fps controls for console, even though Argonaut shipped a game with that schema a whole three years before the first Halo dropped on the OG Xbox.

That ship ain't flying, homie. This lawsuit is trash tier. Will Nintendo's lawyers please find the nearest fire to die in? thank you.