Nintendo and The Pokemon Company File Lawsuit Against Palworld Developer Pocketpair - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 October 2024 / 3,638 Views
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair.
"Nintendo, together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, on September 18, 2024," reads a news release from Nintendo.
"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.
"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."
Nintendo did not specify which patents Palworld infringes on.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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lol, what a joke
Nintendo must have been building up a case. Although this is a patent infringement rather than a copyright violation we all were expecting? What patent could’ve been broken?
Not sure, but someone had a nice video pointing out that the animation models are ripped directly from pokemon. I'm surprised it took this long, guess they've been building a solid case.
Yeah and that same person owned up later on saying they faked some of their findings on purpose because they didn't like the game at all.
They basically self owned themselves to spreading misinformation, and that kind of tactic is rampant on the net these days.
There is no real base on the models. They have made their own, although often similar designs, but how many ways do have to design a sheep, a cat, a bird.
The suit here is reportedly on patent rights, which if true would be a much stronger base. It would be interesting though, which patent they hold, that is infringed here.
All those videos and claims are fake, no models or animations were ripped directly from Pokemon. The claim itself is pretty absurd
I'm amazed it took this long
Wonder what exactly those patents would be.
It somehow took official, high up, high paid Nintendo lawyers 8 MONTHS to comb through an incomplete early access game to come up with a patent suit, and they don't even specify what core patents were infringed upon.
It sounds more like a nuisance case, meant to harass Pocketpair and dissuade others from making similar games in the future. I doubt it has much legal standing. Also, winning a patent case like this would probably be exceptionally bad for the video game industry.
Apparently it's to do with the Arceus capture mechanic and UI, which is ultra specific.
Oh dear, hope Pocketpair can deal with this...
I don't know they can. They are indie game studio. Let's hope they agree to release palworld on switch 2 and Nintendo let them off
They released a game on a shoe-string budget and sold over 15m copies. They absolutely can deal with this, they're loaded. Even if Nintendo do have a legitimate legal case there will be a settlement and it will be over. Palworld will continue to exist.
I imagine they can, they must have been preparing funds since the first rumors of a lawsuit. It would be silly not to. Still, I don't see what exactly is this about, I have no idea what is Pokemon Co. suing for.
As much as I love Nintendo and Pokemon... I really hope they take an L on this.
Anyone that played Palworld for longer than 5 minutes is well aware that its nothing like Pokemon.
Very refreshing take on the creature genre and hopefully a mainstay for years to come.
Good ol' Nintendo keeping strong their suing spree.
Damage to Nintendo, making something remotely related to Pokémon. That doesn't look like it was made in 2009 and made Skyrim vanilla at launch on PS3 seem like a polished experience. Imagine the demands fan have for a next Pokémon game, they need o try now.
What can Nintendo compel Pocketpair to do? Can Pocketpair remove any infringing elements and continue operations shortly after?
Nintendo might be planning to just crush Palworld through costly legal fees until the either agree to a cut of profits or to cease function. Either way, its scummy as hell. Literal abuse of power by a maega corporation against an indie one. Hopefully Palworld dev can stick with it and prevail.
You don't even know if Pal World is in the wrong here yet and you're jumping to random conclusions...
No idea why you're getting downvoted, because this is one of Nintendo's tactics. I know people hate being told an ugly truth, but that is exactly the sort of thing big corps tend to do to smaller ones.
If it was based on designs, yes. But a suit based on designs was never filed. This is apparently about patents. And patents are usually something much more basic and essential. I doubt you can patent a gameplay mechanic, but given the crazy patent system I wouldn't be surprised. But unless we know which patent it will be hard to predict how much this influences the game.
Nintendo is really catching a lot of heat for this
I predict that this will come back to bite them later if they use technology that someone else has patent-ed, the internet will show them no remorse
I'm remembering Sony made a patent about AI autoplay a while back, wondering if Nintendo uses the same thing they did in mario kart 8 deluxe, auto acceleration and auto steering but in mk9 Sony could sue them?
Gamers will have a field day with that I believe
Nintendo about to take a massive L for our public entertainment purposes. They need exact proof AND reasons for why they let Coromon and all the others like it exist with no consequence. Copyright infringment is notorious for being difficult to prove in US courts, with the only exception being 1 to 1 examples.
Imagine if Activision sued EA for Medal of Honor being too similar to CoD. Or EA sued Activision for ripping Titanfall's jetpack movement in Black Ops 3 and Infinite Warfare.
Nintendo has gotten too used to crushing harmless fan projects with cease and desist orders and are about to be in for a rude awakening. And all because a game came by that innovated in ways Nintendo has failed to for decades.
FYI. This is not for copyright infringement, but for multiple PATENT infringements.
People have pointed out months ago that the models used to animate the Pals are directly ripped from pokemon, with AI generated visuals pasted on top.
The others you mention did no such thing.
Except the AI genned rumour turned out to be false, same goes for the "models are the same" (guy who made that video outed himself for making that crap up).
Don't go around telling others what to believe when you yourself are fully in the belief (you are, do not lie to me) of something that isn't true itself.
But the suit is about patents, not designs at all.
This is the end for palworld
It really isn't.
I doubt they can actually lose the case, and they have plenty of money. I suspect it’s more to prevent other companies making similar games.
The Nintendo hate here is delusional. Pal world blatantly stole character designs. Their patent claims may be bunk but they are in the right overall.
Anyway downvote away VGC. This place is a PC/Xbox site now anyway.
Better than Nintendo taking down non-profit fan projects.
They'll take down anything either way tbh, it' not a win/lose, it's more of a lose-lose.
Essay Pro