Pocketpair, the developer behind the successful Palworld video game, has issued a statement regarding the patents which both Nintendo and The Pokemon Company state that the independent studio infringes on. The Pokemon Company and Nintendo claim that Pocketpair infringes on three of its patents and is looking to be compensated by the company to the tune of over 10 million yen and have issued an injunction against Palworld. Pocketpair says that they “will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings.” Here’s the details direct from Pocketpair.
“As announced on September 19, 2024, The Pokémon Company and Nintendo Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the “Plaintiffs”) have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against us. We have received inquiries from various media outlets regarding the status of the lawsuit, and we would like to report the details and current status of this case as follows:
1: Details of the Lawsuit
The Plaintiffs claim that “Palworld,” released by us on January 19, 2024, infringes upon the following three patents held by the Plaintiffs, and are seeking an injunction against the game and compensation for a portion of the damages incurred between the date of registration of the patents and the date of filing of this lawsuit.
2: Target Patents
Patent No. 7545191
[Patent application date: July 30, 2024]
[Patent registration date: August 27, 2024]
Patent No. 7493117
[Patent application date: February 26, 2024]
[Patent registration date: May 22, 2024]
Patent No. 7528390
[Patent application date: March 5, 2024]
[Patent registration date: July 26, 2024]
3: Summary of the Claim
An injunction against Palworld
Payment of 5 million yen plus late payment damages to The Pokémon Company
Payment of 5 million yen plus late payment damages to Nintendo Co., Ltd.
We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings.
Please note that we will refrain from responding individually to inquiries regarding this case. If any matters arise that require public notice, we will announce them on our website, etc.”
We’ll see where this goes.
would like to see these patents, cause if those patents are about ”riding animals” then fuck nintendo
The 3 patents in question I believe have to do with the Aiming, the whole throwing a ball to catch, and the last one IS riding a Pokemon lol
I’m personally not Pro TPC or even anti Palworld. But that fanbase does annoy the living hell out of me. Palworld isn’t even a good game, but it feels like they just play it and support it because it’s not Pokemon.
look i too agree on the palworld fans thing, i think the designs of those monster are either bland or fucking ugly. but yeah im not siding with nintendo on this shit, and i hope palworld wins this, people shouldn’t fear about nintendo copyrighting the idea of throwing rocks to rats in an open world space, it’s not about pocket pair, it’s about the freedom of creation in a world where big companies already abuse the living shit out of copyright laws.
Wouldn’t MMorpgs also be affected because of Mounts. Monster hunter would fit that category etc… I hope Nintendo loses
holy misreading patent contents “riding animals” is not the patent
Tell us what it is then
contextual inputs resuting in the automtic selection of mounts depeding on previous actions and current terrain through the use of a single input
so mounting animals, aight thanks nintendo bootlicker
yet again no, its funny for you to continue to oversimplify the claim just so you can thow the low iq take of “but mounts already existed hurr durr” while trowing away the parts that actually matter (the contextual stuff that is what the patent is acually about while mounting is the result but not the condition)
let me make it clearer, the contextual actions is the patents main content while the mount is the result. but i assume you cannot fathom the meaning of that and can only understand “but it says mount durr”
get off your high horse mf, nintendo could sue you BAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
The only thing I feel Nintendo/TPC might actually have on PalWorld is the latter using a capture device resembling a ball to catch Pals- definitely a bit too close to Pokeballs, and if I were a PalWorld dev I would have opted for a different design entirely.
Otherwise I really don’t think there’s enough else to nail PalWorld with- it’s not like Pokemon and PalWorld are the only creature-collecting games out there. I don’t remember Nintendo or TPC going after Digimon, Monster Rancher, Spectrobes, etc.
Hmm, maybe I’m just ignorant, but wouldn’t the fact that these patents weren’t even applied for until, like, 6 months after Palworld released just kill this whole lawsuit?
Imagine Random Person Mr. 409 makes a game that looks fun. I like it, so I file for patents of parts of Mr. 409’s game. I then sue Mr. 409 for infringing my patents?
Um, excuse me, that sounds very illegal on the plaintiffs’ part. Patents filed AFTER another game is RELEASES should never be grounds for a suit. Am I just missing something?
The patents were filled in december 2021 but were renovated this year. You can read on the article: https://www.siliconera.com/here-are-the-patents-raised-in-the-pokemon-v-palworld-lawsuit/
Ah, gotcha. Thanks! Still, I’d be curious why they even needed to be “renewed” in 2024. Were those patents only good for 3 years? And not saying they did, but if they renewed them specifically because of Palworld, and if they amended them to include what amounts to Palworld lingo, then I’d say bad form indeed. It could all be good to go, but part of it could seem a little sketch
The patent is using Pokémon: Legends Arceus as a basis.
That’s all fine and good, as long as any “updates” weren’t in fact copies of what the competition did better. I just hope it doesn’t get too messy
Updating (aka continuing) patents is common practice, nintendo does it near yearly with most their patents. These patents were also updated regularly. These are to allow for fixing errors, advancements made in the patent and other things
Awesome, thanks for explaining it. I’m sure it’s probably all fine, but one sticking point I might have is if they updated/fixed mistakes that only came to light after seeing what Palworld did. It may be easy to claim they had intended those fixes all along, after seeing others do it better. I just hope this suit doesn’t get too messy
most of it is editing
such as changing words like “enable” to “allow” (although in japanese)
and clarification rather than adding anything. making the patent on contextual button promps related to mounting actions be more legally clear, rather than it being misiterperted as something else.
infact the scenario you talk about is not possible.
Cool, thanks! Yeah, I probably wouldn’t last two seconds in the patent law world 😅
I find just as weird this story of patents filed AFTER the release of palworld. I know that a patent application can take years but still…
the dates listed are wrong they were
2022,2021 and 2021 respectivl. the dates listed are CONTINUATIONS (aka already filed but the patent is updated), none were filed after palworld, nintendo always updates it patents almost yearly on new patents, so these coninuatons are normal.
the way you can tell the filing date of a patent is the year it will expire, 20 years later fafter filing, but these patents expire in 2041
Weird that Palworld is getting singled out like this when games like TemTem and Coromon both exist and are actual rip offs of the Pokémon formula. Palworld does have its similarities both in many of its creature designs and in its capture and battle mechanics. But the other half of its gameplay is nothing like Pokémon. Mostly being its open world form of exploration being more comparable to a game like Skyrim or Breath of the Wild and its crafting mechanics reminding me of games like Minecraft and Dragon Quest Builders.
It’s like its being targeted for its success rather than the few ways it could be argued it is infringing. It feels more like its inspired by Pokémon and its doing many things with the concept that make it a different experience in enough ways that it should have been overlooked. But here we are. I really hope the courts rule in favor of Palworld. As long as a game is trying to do enough things differently, it should be considered inspired by rather than infringing upon. If Nintendo and the Pokémon Company win this, it lays down restrictions that stagnate future video game progress.
I can’t imagine a world where Saints Row was sued for being too similar to GTA or all the times newer fighting games borrowed game mechanics laid down by older games. This could set a new standard of slow progression in ideas game companies need to follow. Imagine a future where all games need to cautiously tip toe around Nintendo brand concepts. I really hope Nintendo loses this case, this is pretty ridiculous, half the game plays nothing like a Pokémon game (unless we’re counting the Legends Arceus game which was in development at the same time so it doesn’t count).
dude, casette beasts got a free week with nso, this is defenetly about Palworld success, i don’t give a shit about Palworld but i hope to god that Palworld wins the lawsuit, game freak deserves some competition after those horrible pokèmon games
I wanna say it’s because Palword is partnering with Sony
Let’s see what happens next once they dig deeper into the hole.
Dude you just did a double entendre joke, lol.
Did I? How is that a joke?
I could but sickr would ban me but basically it sounds like Ninty is going to own their asses.
Honestly, yes because Nintendo is going to dig much deeper in to the hole and find out about the companies plagiarism. It’s like dig harder into a mine.
||If they want to dig deeper then they should re hire me, i aan expert at examining holes…||
Looks like someone’s scared XD
I’m more surprised they can even patented stuff like throwing a ball, riding a mount and aiming.
The patents are not simply that, but these along with the details from Legends Arceus are what they patented.
Guess we can’t throw spherical objects, ride large animals, or use precise target anymore, or else Nintendo will come after us.
But seriously, there’s just too much ugly this year.
I really hope someone creates an offline mod for this game, in the off chance someone buys a Steamdeck just to play this.
Everytime news about this lawsuit comes up people always forget that it’s specifically brought up on the JAPANESE COURT. Your american laws/logic doesn’t apply here. I you dig around hard enough you’ll find Japanese court tend to side with Nintendo on past cases.
I like Nintendo but I hope they lose. Gameplay patents are a pretty absurd concept and it just hurts the customer. Just make a better game rather than prevent other devs from making better games.
can you put the actual filiong dates and not the continuance dates?
You got the dates wrong on those patents. If you look them up you can see that original filings go back years. Those dates are only for recent updates or re-filings.