The gaming community is still reacting to the big news that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developers behind Palworld. What is interesting about the lawsuit is that it isn’t about copyright infringement, but patent rights. Nintendo and The Pokemon Company say that Palworld “infringes multiple patent rights”, but they don’t mention which ones specifically.
Well, patent attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara may have figured that out. Kurihara recently spoke to Yahoo Japan, where he discusses a patent, filed in 2021, which details the way that players can catch creatures they encounter, which would result in the creature belonging to them. It refers to how players look towards a “field character” in front of them, release a “capture item” that strikes that “field character”, and if they catch it, the creature then belongs to them.
The patent is obviously related to Pokemon’s Pokeballs, though it is worth noting that the patent’s setup seems to specifically resemble to how you catch Pokemon in Legends Arceus, which was released in 2022, rather than the traditional Pokemon games that have been releasing for decades. It is that Legends Arceus style of catching creatures that Palworld seems to have similarities to. Because of this, Kurihara mentions that, while it may not be the only patent that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are referring to in their lawsuit, it may be the one that ultimately promoted both companies to take action in the first place. Kurihara is calling it the case’s “killer patient”.
Thanks to Paidenthusiast for the tip!
MMMMM… THEY ARE FINE WITH CASETTE BEASTS AND GAVE THEM A FREE TRIAL FOR EVERYONE WHO OWNS A SWITCH, BUT SOMEHOW WHEN PALWORLD, A MORE SUCCESSFUL AND DARE I SAY “POKÈMON COMPETITOR” DOES IT, THEN SOMEHOW THEY HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT. MMMMMM I WONDER WHY?????????????
Persona 4, SMT series, Nino Kuni, MH stories. These are all monster catching games that didn’t get get sued by Nintendo. I’m sure it’s because of the blatant rip off from the Palworld developers and not because of the genre, but they can’t make a case in that alone, so this perfect patent is their only way in. And it sure seems like they’re poised to win this one.
Yeah ummmmm… I’m sure it’s not because of MONEY and because palworld is directly competing with pokèmon as a franchise, that is totally not for that.
Look it’s very clear what is happening, Nintendo is scared as shit to see kids walking around with whatever the fuck pokèmon wannabe abomination plushie instead of their lovable pikachu so to suppress that competition they took out their secret card which is “ERM ACTUALLY WE OWN THAT CATCH AN ANIMAL WITH A THING!” Even though there are many games in the industry that does that.
Honestly I don’t think PalWorld is in direct competition with Pokémon. Pokémon is an rpg series whereas PalWorld is more akin to the Ark survival series. Sure the creatures look like Pokémon, but the two games are still in different genres.
Yeah, I kinda hate how people accuse someone of being disingenuous by saying Palworld didn’t copy Pokemon when it really feels like you’re being disingenuous if you look at Palworld gameplay vs Pokemon gameplay and say they look like the same game. The way they play looks totally different.
“’m sure it’s not because of MONEY and because palworld is directly competing with pokèmon as a franchise, that is totally not for that.”
uhhh, of course its because of money, that’s what civil suits are about. Nintendo is directly telling you out loud that its about money. That’s not being hidden.
“Even though there are many games in the industry that does that.”
Doesn’t matter. If Nintendo owns the patent, they can sue those who violate the patent at their discretion. Just like they CAN demand most any fan game be taken down. They don’t enforce that most of the time, but they can at their discretion.
It’s called a monopoly for a reason.
Probably because Palworld is such a blatant ripoff in certain aspects. No amount of deflection is going to change that. Nintendo/PokeCo would have absolutely no case against those other monster catching games. They’re heavily inspired by a pokemon, sure, but there’s nothing illegal with that. Same thing for Bloodstained, Yooka-Laylee, etc… you don’t see lawsuits coming for those because there would equally be no case for it.
I swear the Nintendo doom-mongers always use the same tired, baseless arguments. It’s like you guys truly believe Nintendo issues these lawsuits without legal reason lmao. Grow up, man. Terminally online to an insane degree.
“ Nintendo doom-mongers” nah we just like Nintendo but we don’t agree on everything they do UNLIKE YOU!
More successful than Pokemon? 1 game is more successful than a series that has been around for decades and continues to sell well and has multiple types of media from trading cards to movies and tv shows etc?
Not everyone gets a free trial over lawsuits, plagiarism, and copyright infringement these days. It’s just that both companies don’t want another company to copy exactly that is similar to their IPs gameplays. The Pokemon company are not like the FBI.
I’m starting to worry that we won’t get a Palworld port on Switch…
Because of this, no we won’t. Not anytime soon.
TFW we will never see pikachu holding hands with a palworld pikachu clone
Maybe not on Switch, but I wouldn’t say it isn’t possible. Weirdly enough something kinda similar already happened. See when the ESRB rating system was first established, one of the games in discussion was a game called Night Trap. One of Nintendo’s big shots at the time stated “Night Trap will never be sold on a Nintendo platform”. Funny thing is, you can buy it on the Switch. I actually bought it, not to play it, but because it was funny that they did a 180 on that game.
Who knows, maybe in 10~20 years Palworld will have a crossover with Pokémon. Unlikely, but can’t say its impossible.
That was completely different. Night Trap was an exclusive Sega “violent game” and that comment came at the peak of the Nintendo Sega Rivalry during the SNES. Not to mention around the time Nintendo wanted to be seen as family friendly to the point that anything with violence was not allowed AND the ESRB was formed. That comment was made by the Nintendo of America CEO to testify against violence in games to the ESRB board. Not only have they changed their stance on rated M games, but they have also changed CEO’s multiple times since. The Sega Rivalry is gone, and MK (the other violent game they testified against) has since been on a Nintendo console multiple times WITH the violence includes.
To be fair, I never said the same thing happened. I said it was similar. And the way it was similar was that Nintendo took a stance against violence in video games and singled out a game. Circumstances might be different as in this is about a lawsuit. But the overall principle is still similar in that Nintendo is taking a stance right now, but their stubborn nature of playing hardball with anything that they feel threatened with their IPs might not be an issue 15~20 years from now. And the reasoning is quite simple, its not consumer friendly. This actually hurts them in that many fans dislike this attitude, the thing they’re fighting breathes new life into old ideas and helps the industry grow, and in certain areas (fan games) it could be seen as advertisements as its just fans expressing their love for their favorite franchises. Heck, Sega even embraces it and its the best stuff from Sonic. Sonic Mania is made by a fan that makes fan games, if Nintendo would loosen up a bit it would be a good thing.
I would completely agree with you, if their sales were slowly declining, but it’s the opposite. I do agree that the way they do things isn’t end user friendly, or at the very least fan friendly, but numbers seem to point otherwise. After last year, I expected them to recant their views on YouTube, twitch, and tourney content, but not only they not backtrack but they doubled down by shutting down a couple sites this year. I do hope they change, but I honestly don’t see it happening.
Except that Sega allows (or tolerates) games made by fans and Nintendo has every right to ban them, the 2 companies are within their rights to authorize or not; It’s the same principle for mods
Now I don’t agree when you say that prohibiting it harms creativity… We must not forget that many people make fangames without asking for permission, which is illegal, or make money with what is even worse… Talking about creativity is just for me a false pretext to take advantage of the brand’s notoriety… and we must not forget that in the USA for example, if a company does not renew its intellectual property or lets others use it like that without intervening it ends up falling into the public domain…The realm of the copyright law is very clear on this subject; You absolutely do not have the right to use any intellectual property other than that dictated by the company’s terms of use, it’s as simple as this…
Sofiona’s daughter: Look mommy I drew super Mario with with a brown yoshi!!!!
Sofiona: ERM ACTUALLY YOU HAVE NO CREATIVITY, AND BY THE WAY IM CALLING NINTENDO AFTER THIS BECAUSE THEY ARE WITHIN THEIR RIGHTS TO PROTECT THEIR IP’S.
They’re technically within their rights, but lets think rationally about this. Some of the things they do are petty. Someone uploaded a Mario 64 strategy guide they haven’t sold in forever and Nintendo still went after him. The point is pick your battles, this is one of many examples where they didn’t need to get involved but they did.
Now Palworld might not be as innocent with its designs, but they’re targeting a patent rather than the creatures or their in game files. You see, all video game companies patent the good ideas like Namco’s patent on a high score list and SNK has a patent on having a title screen. They do this so companies outside of the video game market can’t patent these things and stifle their creativity. But they don’t normally sue each other. Nintendo is the same, they’ve made patents that other companies in the industry use as well. They’re springing this on Palworld because of its success. They feel threatened by its popularity and instead of welcoming a challenge they’re trying to take it down, like a bad sport. They could have thrown legal action against games like TemTem or Coromon, but they didn’t and it further supports this theory of sheer pettiness.
Hopefully one day Nintendo can be more lax with things like fan games (that put their projects up for free) and other ways fans express their love for franchises. Yes, Nintendo has the right to take them down, not arguing that. But its not really necessary and it only irritates the fan base rather than accept them.
So amazed at how many apparent attorneys frequent this comment section 😆