Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are Suing Palworld, but not for the Reasons You Might Think
Palworld’s arrival on the gaming scene a while back certainly caused a stir within the video game industry, and as entertaining as it was it did prove to be divisive among the gaming community due to several visual similarities to the Pokemon franchise. While many initially thought that Nintendo and the Pokemon Company (TPC) would go the usual legal route versus Palworld, it seemed that it took a while for Nintendo and TPC to take matters to court – that is, until now.
In case you missed it, Nintendo recently announced (via an official press release) that it intends to file a lawsuit against Pocketpair, the company responsible for Palworld. While this was expected to some degree, it seems that the lawsuit surprisingly does not revolve around the similar designs between in-game characters, as many suspected.
According to Kiyoshi Kurihara, a Japanese patent attorney and consultant on intellectual property, Nintendo’s lawsuit revolves around a patented game mechanic which allows players to capture creatures in-game (you know, the very element that Pokemon is built on). He comments:
It seems like it would be hard to avoid if you want to make a Pokémon-like game, and it’s easy to infringe if you’re not careful.
He adds that there are four divisional patent applications that Nintendo and TPC registered back in January. A “divisional patent” essentially contains isolated content from an already registered parent patent. While a majority of Palworld’s gameplay greatly differs from Pokemon, the game does incorporate a somewhat similar catch mechanic that falls within one of the patents described. Nintendo still hasn’t spoken out on which specific patent its legal basis rests on, however.
Pocketpair has since responded to Nintendo’s press release regarding the lawsuit. Part of the company’s official statement reads:
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.
Source: IGN