On Thursday night, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company revealed that they were suing Palworld developer Pocketpair for patent infringement. Palworld became a viral success following its early access launch in January because it was a creature-collecting survival game with a surprisingly violent edge. The similarities to Pokémon were pretty noticeable, so players were left wondering for months whether or not any legal action would be pursued.
Now, we know that Nintendo is taking Pocketpair to court. While many unknowns still surround this lawsuit, there’s a lot to glean from the early details. Here are the basics you need to know to get you up to speed on what could be a monumental legal case for video games.
Nintendo files a lawsuit in Japan
On the evening of September 18 (or the early morning of September 19 in Japan), Nintendo publicly put out a news release on its investment website titled “Filing Lawsuit for Infringement of Patent Rights against Pocketpair, Inc.” It confirms that a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair has been filed by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company in Tokyo District Court.
“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,” the news release explained. “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.”
The Pokémon Company said in February 2024 that it would “investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon” following the release of Palworld. Well, they’ve found something they believe Pocketpair is infringing upon.
Pocketpair responds to the lawsuit
A few hours after Nintendo’s public statement about the lawsuit, Pocketpair issued a statement of its own. It claimed to be unaware of the specific patents Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are accusing it of infringing upon and lamented that this lawsuit would take time and effort away from Palworld’s development.
“Pocketpair is a small indie game company based in Tokyo. Our goal as a company has always been to create fun games. We will continue to pursue this goal because we know that our games bring joy to millions of gamers around the world. Palworld was a surprise success this year, both for gamers and for us. We were blown away by the amazing response to the game and have been working hard to make it even better for our fans. We will continue improving Palworld and strive to create a game that our fans can be proud of. It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.”
For now, Palworld remains on sale across PC and Xbox Series X/S, and the game will make a public appearance at Tokyo Game Show next week.
What patents could Palworld potentially infringe upon?
As of September 19, we do not know what specific patents Nintendo and The Pokémon Company plan on accusing Pocketpair of infringing upon. Nintendo’s brief statement does not reference anything specific, and even Pocketpair claims in its statement that it is “unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details.” It’s worth remembering that this lawsuit will happen in Japan, not the U.S., so patents and patent law may slightly differ between the two countries.
That still hasn’t stopped people from speculating and looking further into Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s patents. Game File’s Stephen Totilo spotted a U.S. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company patent for “a video game character throwing an item to catch a monster while out in field,” similar to the gameplay of Pokémon Legends: Arceus (as well as Palworld). Upon further investigation, Totilo found a similar patent that’s considered valid in Japan.
It’s still unknown if this is specifically what Nintendo is pursuing legal action over, but expect something like it to be at the center of this legal battle between Pocketpair and the companies behind Pokémon.