Palworld developer responds to Nintendo's lawsuit, claims they don't know which patents are being infringed upon

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Late yesterday, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developer of the monster-collecting open-world game Palworld, alleging it infringed upon their patents. Initial reports did not specify which patents were being infringed upon, and it turns out the defendants in the case aren't sure either.

Pocketpair issued a public response to the lawsuit this morning, claiming that they are "unaware of the specific patents [they] are accused of infringing upon," and "have not been notified of such details." They have begun "investigations into the claims of patent infringement," and while they will continue working on Palworld, they regret that they "will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit." More than that, they believe they have an opportunity to "ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas" and plan to do what they can in pursuit of that goal.

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Xzi

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Excluding Craftopia, which nobody knew or cared about worth a damn at that time, PLA's system was unique. And likely, in development for a longer time than Craftopia was on its release. That aside Nintendo was the one to patent it in its 'complete' form. Ergo, the form Craftopia has is as Unique as Pokemon's.
I'm sure that's as close as I'll get to agreement from you, so I'll take it. Again though, the mechanic in question isn't unique even to the monster catching genre, it's been in all sorts of MMOs and JRPGs. Neither new nor novel, meaning the patent shouldn't have been granted. It also took Nintendo's army of lawyers a hell of a long time to dig this up, so that makes it feel even more like grasping at straws.
 

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You assume it took them hella long to dig up. I imagine as I said earlier this was a direct response to the Palworld company joining up with Sony.

Also, MMOs don't have a 'manually aim and throw a device, hit a enemy with it, depending on device the chances improve, make a sound on a capture, then returns to hand' system. Feel free to disprove me. Like actual aim. Not an autolock.
 

The Catboy

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Or maybe Temtem didn't actually break any copyright, trademarks, OR patents! Imagine that!
Temtem is a literal Pokémon clone with far more similar features to Pokémon compared to Palworld. There’s also countless Pokéclones that are basically Pokémon with OCs. If it’s about breaking patents, copyright, or trademarks, Nintendo has been asleep at the wheel for a hot minute now with every other Pokéclone.
The only reason they are going after Palworld is because it made money and Nintendo decided to get a piece of that pie. And to get a piece of that pie, Nintendo is literally patent trolling. They are suing Palworld retroactively and that’s indefensible.
 
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So going to leave this here, found it on Youtube, doubt it will see many readers, but I feel this is a pretty detailed summary about this case and how it's, like it or not, actually viable for Nintendo to win.

View attachment 460471

Thank you for sharing. This sheds a great deal of light on the nuances of the case even if it is a dissenting opinion of an apparent minority within the vocal consensus of this thread.
 

Kiiro_Yakumo

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I just remembered something, I wonder why the "OH SO POWERFUL" Bitchendo is not going after... Mihoyo.
To quote the mechanics of Omni-ubiquity Net:
It allows the user to capture the essence of small animals in the open world and place them in their Serenitea Pot by converting the player's Elemental Skill into an event-specific skill. When attempting to use the gadget on animals not marked by a net symbol in the Archive, the player will be prompted with the "This target cannot be captured" message. If the usage is invalid or the player misses the target, the gadget is not consumed. Up to 99 omni-ubiquity nets can be stored in the Inventory.
Basically it's a pokeball of Genshin Impact but AHA, Mihoyo has bigger fish behind them and Bitchendo is not going for war.
Double standards, greed, lack of logic, "money wins" tactic...
Nintendo died with Iwata, case closed.
 
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VartioArtel

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I just remembered something, I wonder why the "OH SO POWERFUL" Bitchendo is not going after... Mihoyo.
To quote the mechanics of Omni-ubiquity Net:

Basically it's a pokeball of Genshin Impact but AHA, Mihoyo has bigger fish behind them and Bitchendo is not going for war.
Double standards, greed, lack of logic, "money wins" tactic...
Nintendo died with Iwata, case closed.
Does not include a battle system open world or otherwise. Does not include an "Encyclopedia" that opens upon initial capture. Does not include different tiers affecting catch rate. All part of the patent. Seriously it's like you folks don't bother trying to understand what patent is.

Post automatically merged:

Temtem is a literal Pokémon clone with far more similar features to Pokémon compared to Palworld. There’s also countless Pokéclones that are basically Pokémon with OCs. If it’s about breaking patents, copyright, or trademarks, Nintendo has been asleep at the wheel for a hot minute now with every other Pokéclone.
The only reason they are going after Palworld is because it made money and Nintendo decided to get a piece of that pie. And to get a piece of that pie, Nintendo is literally patent trolling. They are suing Palworld retroactively and that’s indefensible.
Temtem existed after the original patents ended, ergo is in the legal clear as its based on the 2D model. It doesn't matter WHAT Temtem does, Nintendo cannot sue them for patent infringement. Edit: Their designs are also legally distinct enough they don't get the flack like Azurobe's hair/body.
 

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Does not include a battle system open world or otherwise. Does not include an "Encyclopedia". Does not include different tiers affecting catch rate. All part of the patent.
Sure it's not full-scale Pokemon-like game in case of Genshin but it was meant to be a bit of sarcasm towards Bitchendo that they are not fighting for "justice" (HAAAH!) but for easy money, trying to justify it with "patent infringement" or whatnot.
As you said there are quite a few more literal Pokeclones and it was "A-OK" because they probably didn't earn that much money and fame as Palworld did. That and the fact that Pokeclones existed already when Pokemon games were still good or at least decent enough to be able to "fight for themselves". Now if Bitchendo would stay silent, they would not be able to make Pokemon game that will be ACTUALLY GOOD to fight for itself on the market as "I am great game! Play me!" kind of stuff.
 

VartioArtel

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Sure it's not full-scale Pokemon-like game in case of Genshin but it was meant to be a bit of sarcasm towards Bitchendo that they are not fighting for "justice" (HAAAH!) but for easy money, trying to justify it with "patent infringement" or whatnot.
As you said there are quite a few more literal Pokeclones and it was "A-OK" because they probably didn't earn that much money and fame as Palworld did. That and the fact that Pokeclones existed already when Pokemon games were still good or at least decent enough to be able to "fight for themselves". Now if Bitchendo would stay silent, they would not be able to make Pokemon game that will be ACTUALLY GOOD to fight for itself on the market as "I am great game! Play me!" kind of stuff.
No. The Money had nothing to do with it. You peoople keep running back to the same arguments because it's a convenient excuse to continue making an argument in bad faith.

They couldn't focus Nexomon because like Temtem, any patent they had or could use was already over or nonexistent.

Cassette Beasts? I look up 'ripoffs' and nothing looks close to a Pokemon design, so they dodge copyright. Not even a 'stitched together two Pokemon's artwork and/or exact sprites' type deal. Not to mention again past the year.

Monster Rancher was huge in Japan y'know? How did they avoid it? The non-Pokemon-esque designs, not using any Pokemon's designs as a basis, and most importantly: the 'capture' and 'combat' were absolutely nothing like Pokemon's.

Digimon World 2, what had outright capturing of Digimon? Why did they not go after Digimon, hm? You had to toss the 'capture' items before battle, which raised a sort of 'affinity' gauge'. (Edit: And they even came in different tiers that improved the odds/rate of improving the capture!) It's easy: none of these broke trademarks, copyrights, or patents, Digimon were an equally storied and similar genre with no stolen art, and had its own unique art style top to bottom.

Digimon World DS games? They allows 'capturing' through encountering an opponent multiple times. Again escapes.

I could go on. Either a game was so miniscule it escaped their notice, the idiots tried to profit off blatantly stolen designs, or most importantly: they stole something from Nintendo's Copyright, Trademark, or Patent nearly or entirely 1:1.

As stated, the Palworld scenario has a plethora of 0.95:1, or even 1:1 copies, or perceivably that close. And theirs are while one of their 'rights' are active, unlike Cassette Beasts/TemTem/Nexomon.

And as I proved, Digimon, despite having a VERY close 'Monster Catcher' in World 2, did NOT have the issues in question.

PS: The Pokemon Company is only partly owned by Nintendo, it isn't exclusively Nintendo's, and they ultimately have A say, but not THE say, in it, so associating anything, if everything, it does with Nintendo particularly is disingenuous. I know that to people like you, you don't care about particulars, but in law, they are everything
 
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Kiiro_Yakumo

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They couldn't focus Nexomon because like Temtem, any patent they had or could use was already over or nonexistent.
The same for Palworld then, the patent that is supposedly the topic was filled in July 2024, way AFTER Palworld came to existence and law can't work backwards if you want to have healthy society.
The "money wins" argument is unfortunately very common on this tier of hierarchy, law is not made to protect people, it's made so corporations can crush other people and go for petty wars in court, they have such a kinky fetish.

EDIT #1 - Oh and let's not forget that if Bitchendo want to cry about it, they should first go to current Square Enix - back then just Enix I think? - and apologize for Pokemon being a copy basically of Dragon Quest.
 
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VartioArtel

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The same for Palworld then, the patent that is supposedly the topic was filled in July 2024, way AFTER Palworld came to existence and law can't work backwards if you want to have healthy society.
My god you really don't comprehend anything being said, do you? Nor do you do any actual research.

1. No, Palworld is dealing with a different set of patents than TemTem, etc, would. There's entirely different patents dictating their rights to a certain set of mechanics, in a certain method, in an open world 3D Terrain, than in the classic GB/C/A + DS + 3DS eras. The former, the Open World 3D Terrain Patents, is what Palworld is dealing with. Temtem et al are dealing with outdated, effectively neutered patents in comparison.

Let me bold and underline this for you: each patent requires that the infringement copy the entire breadth of the patent's coverage, and not a detail more or less. In short, TemTem et al would never fall under the newer patents, and the former patents likely expired, ergo TemTem Et al, even if they DID infringing, are in the clear just by how the law works.

-----

2. No, the 2024 Patent is a 'child' patent, extending the coverage of the 2021 Patent ( see: https://gbatemp.net/threads/palworl...are-being-infringed-upon.661030/post-10502485 ). What this means is that it's treated as though it's nothing more than covering additional systems they already owned rights to in 2021. BUT, the patent will also completely fall off the same day as the 2021 patent. The American Patents that people are looking at simply child patents acknowledging the original, 2021 patent.

-----

3. As established: Nintendo has 0 actual power on its own. This suit was made by the combined decisive authority of Creatures Inc, Gamefreak, and Nintendo. 2/3rds of that are not nintendo. They had a say, not the say. The other two companies had to agree, and are not Nintendo. In fact, I'm going to blow your mind: Legally and even in their own documents, Pokemon is not a first party to Nintendo. They simply exclusively make for Nintendo. So your continuing to make this about Nintendo is either trolling, or, well, willful ignorance, neither of which suit your argument.

-----

4. "Money Wins" - so what is it with you folks? Are the companies too big to be worth suing or too little to be worth suing? Palworld has the backing of Sony. It isn't financially feasible to be suing them. Yet they didn't sue Digimon for Digimon World 2? Why did you not address that, unless that fact's an achilles heel to your argument and enlightens the contradiction to your belief and makes it clear that you're just trying to gaslight?
 

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Temtem existed after the original patents ended, ergo is in the legal clear as its based on the 2D model. It doesn't matter WHAT Temtem does, Nintendo cannot sue them for patent infringement. Edit: Their designs are also legally distinct enough they don't get the flack like Azurobe's hair/body.
You picked out just one game from my comment. There are literally countless Pokéclones that used similar if not the same gaming mechanics to Pokémon. Plus, you didn't even address the fact that the patients were filed AFTER Palworld was released. Again, if this was ever about protecting patients, Nintendo ignoring the countless Pokéclones, only to focus on Palworld makes it pretty obvious what Nintendo is doing. Palworld is successful, Nintendo got mad, so they went through hoops to make up any reason to try to bring them to court. Defending Nintendo for their obvious patient trolling is pretty sad, how much the Big N paying you?
 
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You picked out just one game from my comment. There are literally countless Pokéclones that used similar if not the same gaming mechanics to Pokémon. Plus, you didn't even address the fact that the patients were filed AFTER Palworld was released. Again, if this was ever about protecting patients, Nintendo ignoring the countless Pokéclones, only to focus on Palworld makes it pretty obvious what Nintendo is doing. Palworld is successful, Nintendo got mad, so they went through hoops to make up any reason to try to bring them to court. Defending Nintendo for their obvious patient trolling is pretty sad, how much the Big N paying you?
Now i know you people aren't bothering to read.

Palworld was released January 2024.

The patent in question was made December 2021. It doesn't matter when the child patents were, they are effective going back to the 2021 one as they established most of the baseline systems.

I don't need to continue this discussion, you don't read my posts, I don't need to read yours. Go back and reread everything from the link I posted (AGAIN: https://gbatemp.net/threads/palworl...are-being-infringed-upon.661030/post-10502485 ) and get back to me when you can comprehend the words stated.
 

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Now i know you people aren't bothering to read.

Palworld was released January 2024.

The patent in question was made December 2021. It doesn't matter when the child patents were, they are effective going back to the 2021 one as they established most of the baseline systems.

I don't need to continue this discussion, you don't read my posts, I don't need to read yours. Go back and reread everything from the link I posted (AGAIN: https://gbatemp.net/threads/palworl...are-being-infringed-upon.661030/post-10502485 ) and get back to me when you can comprehend the words stated.
I ain’t reading that wall. I don’t care what some YouTube comment says. They are just as in the dark as the rest of us.
I am reading your posts, I am just taking note that you ignore the long history of Nintendo ignoring other games and only focusing on the successful one. Plus, the patient was still filed after the fact that Pocketpair already using the mechanics before the patient with Craftopia. I know this is about Palworld but it’s kind of wild to defend Nintendo for a feature they didn’t even create and now using that feature to bully the company who actually did create it. I may have been wrong to say it was filed after Palworld but it sure as hell is still an act of patient trolling to sue the company who did make that gaming mechanic just because another game they made became successful.

Nintendo isn’t protecting their patents or their customers. Nintendo saw a game get successful, be compared to their games, and they got the big mad about it. Regardless of what patent they are suing for (because we actually DON’T know which one they are suing for,) their reasons are literally just trying to drag Palworld does a little bit for having the balls to exist in the same world as them. If Palworld didn’t become a successful, Nintendo would have ignored them like every other Pokéclone.
 
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The Catboy

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>Lawyer informed in patent law makes a statement
>You don't care

So you're telling me you don't care about experienced knowledge. Gotcha. You're just a troll.
Actually what I am telling you is that I am not going to read a wordwall from a random YouTube comment. As for their credibility, I can’t find them based on their username (which I am assuming must be their real name,) so I have no reason to trust if they are or aren’t a lawyer. That said, none of that addresses my points of Nintendo’s reasons for ignoring previous games and focusing on Palworld. My point is as stated, Nintendo’s only doing this because Palworld made money. If the Big N really cared about going after games with similar mechanics, then they sure as hell have been asleep at the wheel. Since you are just going to ignore me, I will return in kind
 
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Kiiro_Yakumo

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Nintendo isn’t protecting their patents or their customers. Nintendo saw a game get successful, be compared to their games, and they got the big mad about it. Regardless of what patent they are suing for (because we actually DON’T know which one they are suing for,) their reasons are literally just trying to drag Palworld does a little bit for having the balls to exist in the same world as them. If Palworld didn’t become a successful, Nintendo would have ignored them like every other Pokéclone.
Bitchendo was already mad about that one Metroid fangame which was not making money - as in selling it - so if Palworld is actually having not so small income probably made Bitchendo explode, anime style.
Nintendo died with Iwata, that's not an opinion, that's a fact.

https://i.redd.it/k4xhibacn8l81.jpg
That's what happens! (like totaaallyyy!) (ultra sarcasm of course)
 

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