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

 

[Robert Newbie]

I only played it when it originally released so not sure if any updates changed this, but as far as I saw, it would be like saying Digimon is a Pokemon clone. Probably a few that look a bit closer to Pokemon but still not close enough to sue over imo.

The worst one I've seen is Fenglope and Coballion. But it's just a blue deer/goat sort of thing, probably just about the most generic thing you could make.

They're extremely similar, and that probably is no coincidence, but just different enough to (hopefully) avoid copyright infringement.
The overall art style is very Pokemon, you know how Pokemon and Digimon designs both have their unique style that allows you to identify something as Pokemon right away even if you haven't played the games that Pokemon is from. Basically they look like Fakemon lol.
Pokemon has shooting mechanics?

The environments are just kinda generic open world. More Zelda BotW than Pokemon really.

It does not and honestly seems like Nintendo is throwing a fit that this game was successful. They are probably hoping to kill this game in legal fees.
Seriously, fuck Nintendo

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

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

Thanks for the clarification, everyone. Since I haven't played Palworld myself, I wasn't sure how close the game actually is to GameFreak material. From an emotional side, I want Palworld to win out because competitors to Pokemon might motivate Nintendo to up their Pokemon game. If they drive out all the competition, they never have to improve.

On the other hand, if Palworld does get "too close" then they shouldn't be surprised by legal action. The problem is that Nintendo's been pushing through so many lawsuits and DMCA's that it's hard to tell what's what.

To clarify, yes the "shooting mechanics" bit was a joke.

 

[Kwyjor]

People realize that patents expire after 20 years and it is quite impossible that they're suing over concepts from a 28-year-old game, right?

doing some very basic reasearch, the most likely patent Nintendo is suing over is Patent JP7545191B1 and to a lesser degree Patents US20240100432A1 and US11782898B.

I appreciate that someone here actually tried, but US20240100432 is a patent application and not a granted patent. That's not useful for a lawsuit. Also a Japanese patent is only useful to stop people from doing business in Japan.

And I'm not sure US11782898 has much to do with Pokemon specifically.

 

[spinal_cord]

https://www.pocketpair.jp/news/news16

"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."

If Pockeptpair don't know what they're being sued for, it's unlikely that anyone will guess correctly.

 

[BlueFox gui]

Thanks for the clarification, everyone. Since I haven't played Palworld myself, I wasn't sure how close the game actually is to GameFreak material. From an emotional side, I want Palworld to win out because competitors to Pokemon might motivate Nintendo to up their Pokemon game. If they drive out all the competition, they never have to improve.

On the other hand, if Palworld does get "too close" then they shouldn't be surprised by legal action. The problem is that Nintendo's been pushing through so many lawsuits and DMCA's that it's hard to tell what's what.

To clarify, yes the "shooting mechanics" bit was a joke.

i do think that too, pokemon NEEDS competition, i say this as a fan, pokemon fucking sucks, and the state of the new games shows that they don't care about quality and that any unfinished trash will sell millions, the fact that it sold over 20 million while being in that state shows it, and its sad, its like seeing Sonic 06 selling 20 million copies despite the issues, so i really want to see some competition forcing them to get better, but at the same time, palworld is made by a company that only does "cheap copy" games, they made their zelda botw clones, multiple in fact, some had success, others didn't, and what they did was just glue together multiple gameplay things that modern games do + pokemon, but in one game, and to some extent it works, but you can see that the concept part is like, kinda lost and not tied properly, its a cheap company that likes to steal ideas, and the ones that have actual good ideas are just small indies that arent really that successful

 

[Robert Newbie]

i do think that too, pokemon NEEDS competition, i say this as a fan, pokemon fucking sucks, and the state of the new games shows that they don't care about quality and that any unfinished trash will sell millions, the fact that it sold over 20 million while being in that state shows it, and its sad, its like seeing Sonic 06 selling 20 million copies despite the issues, so i really want to see some competition forcing them to get better, but at the same time, palworld is made by a company that only does "cheap copy" games, they made their zelda botw clones, multiple in fact, some had success, others didn't, and what they did was just glue together multiple gameplay things that modern games do + pokemon, but in one game, and to some extent it works, but you can see that the concept part is like, kinda lost and not tied properly, its a cheap company that likes to steal ideas, and the ones that have actual good ideas are just small indies that arent really that successful

Thanks for the run down. I didn't know the Palworld devs made a bunch of knockoff games. I always got the feeling that Palworld didn't have much beyond the creatures + shooting + open world concept, since I never hear about anything but those three. For those that have played it, what do you DO in the game?

Are there dungeons, gym leaders, towns with characters, large areas to cross to reach different large areas? Battles? Side Quests? A main quest with a storyline, for that matter?

In your own opinion, when did Pokemon become stagnant? Some fans say the first few generations are the best. I hear Black & White 2 is the last good Pokemon game. I'm intrigued, since I'm looking in from the outside. The answers vary as much as "When did the Simpsons become bad?"

 

[BlueFox gui]

Thanks for the run down. I didn't know the Palworld devs made a bunch of knockoff games. I always got the feeling that Palworld didn't have much beyond the creatures + shooting + open world concept, since I never hear about anything but those three. For those that have played it, what do you DO in the game?

Are there dungeons, gym leaders, towns with characters, large areas to cross to reach different large areas? Battles? Side Quests? A main quest with a storyline, for that matter?

In your own opinion, when did Pokemon become stagnant? Some fans say the first few generations are the best. I hear Black & White 2 is the last good Pokemon game. I'm intrigued, since I'm looking in from the outside. The answers vary as much as "When did the Simpsons become bad?"

i watched a streamer play palworld and the game is fun, it tries to mix things from ARC survival evolved with open world and takes the same survival stuff from the botw clones they made, but this time it adds pokeys, there are towers with people to fight, places to invade, crafting and building stuff, and defending, it just mixes a bunch of random stuff but without much effort to tie things into "lore" you know, they just exist, at least this is my impression of it

about the pokemon thing, it changes from people to people, you can enjoy any pokemon games, even scarlet and violet, its fine to enjoy bad games and taking whatever good thing was made on it, but if you think of when pokemon became stagnant, after the second game, they simply don't evolve the formula the way it should be, every game is the same but with a few gimmicks that don't return and a different story, the only pokemon games i truly enjoyed were the ones that did something different, for example sun and moon with the island things and ultra beasts, still the same shit but i liked it a lot, and legends arceus where the focus was on catching by aiming and stuff, this one was a true evolution, they finally made something new and fun that is a gameplay thing and not just a gimmick, and finally collecting monsters as a focus became fun, pokemon was always about "gotta catch them all" but its the most boring part of the game

 

[Wolfy]

Surprised they did it, can't wait to see what happens

 

[Silterpy]

Also, at this point, explain this, Nintendo.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Also, at this point, explain this, Nintendo.
View attachment 459311

squarenix need to sue them now while they are suing palworld. that will fuck them in the ass

 

[DragonMals]

Also, at this point, explain this, Nintendo.
View attachment 459311

I love it when people bring up how Pokemon is a fucking bootleg of Dragon Quest. It's almost as if these designs are 100% taken STRAIGHT FORM DRAGON QUEST! I bet that the gameplay is also taken straight and copied off form that game. Never cared about any of them, either (only played Gen IV, V, and VII Pokemon and that's about it)

I fucking hate Nintendo, and I hope that they will burn to ashes, alongside every other major company out there. Patent Infringement? Give me a BREAK.

 

[RetroNerdGamer]

I love it when people bring up how Pokemon is a fucking bootleg of Dragon Quest. It's almost as if these designs are 100% taken STRAIGHT FORM DRAGON QUEST! I bet that the gameplay is also taken straight and copied off form that game. Never cared about any of them, either (only played Gen IV, V, and VII Pokemon and that's about it)

I fucking hate Nintendo, and I hope that they will burn to ashes, alongside every other major company out there. Patent Infringement? Give me a BREAK.

I wouldnt go as harsh but I agree.

Honestly? Buying my Pokemon games used from now on. Screw 'em.

 

[Kwyjor]

PC Gamer has emerged with some thoughtful commentary, suggesting it's a patent related to Pokemon Legends: Arceus. https://patents.google.com/patent/US20230191255A1/en should have the same content as a related, granted Japanese patent.
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survi...ld-devs-over-a-patent-on-throwing-poke-balls/

 

[ChronosNotashi]

about the pokemon thing, it changes from people to people, you can enjoy any pokemon games, even scarlet and violet, its fine to enjoy bad games and taking whatever good thing was made on it, but if you think of when pokemon became stagnant, after the second game, they simply don't evolve the formula the way it should be, every game is the same but with a few gimmicks that don't return and a different story, the only pokemon games i truly enjoyed were the ones that did something different, for example sun and moon with the island things and ultra beasts, still the same shit but i liked it a lot, and legends arceus where the focus was on catching by aiming and stuff, this one was a true evolution, they finally made something new and fun that is a gameplay thing and not just a gimmick, and finally collecting monsters as a focus became fun, pokemon was always about "gotta catch them all" but its the most boring part of the game

Ditto on thoughts regarding Legends: Arceus. As a bonus, they avoided having any PvP modes in the game while focusing on what the game is actually about. I always felt that PvP in the Pokemon games was more a side thing than a core part of the games, but plenty of people like to hype it up. So it was nice to see them not shove PvP into a game where it wouldn't have made sense (considering that, lore-wise, Pokemon battles weren't the kind of sport that they are in modern times, but actual contests of dominance).

Also, at this point, explain this, Nintendo.
View attachment 459311

You know, if we're going to be honest, if either Enix, SqaureEnix, or Toriyama were actually concerned about something like this, they would've sued Nintendo over it LONG AGO. Yes, the hand of the law moves slowly, but it doesn't move that slowly. Plus, there is such a thing as something resembling but being legally distinct from something else. Otherwise, Toriyama (the one who drew the Dragon Quest monsters originally) would've been sued for so many things long before his untimely passing (I'll give you three guesses as to who Son Goku is based on).

Regardless, though, bringing up that image is pointless, because - and I don't think anyone here can bring this up enough - this is not a copyright infringement lawsuit. It's a patent infringement lawsuit. Completely different territory in the battlefield of law.

 

[Lumpofcoal]

I still remember some media articles and plenty of social media comments praising pokemon company/nintendo for being "very chill" about it and that nothing could possibly come of it, that it was all just "haters" trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. Those people evidently don't understand nintendo well enough.

 

[Tri-Z]

Well what about every go kart game that’s similar to mariokart or cause most of those others were failures and didn’t bring in money so wasn’t a threat to Nintendo.

 

[ZeroFX]

inb4 lawsuit

 

[Brooky340]

Hell I believe it.

 

[gamefan128]

took them long enough

how do you have a 100% rated PC

Post automatically merged: Sep 20, 2024

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.

STOP.

 

[BlyZe]

I hope Nintendo loses that one

 

[Ondrashek06]

https://www.pocketpair.jp/news/news16

"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."

If Pockeptpair don't know what they're being sued for, it's unlikely that anyone will guess correctly.

How can you even sue someone for something and NOT tell them what that "something" is?