Nintendo and The Pokemon Company Seeking Injunction and Damages from Pocketpair - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 December 2024 / 2,583 Views
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company in September filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair.
At the time Nintendo did not share which patents Palworld infringed on, however, Pocketpair has now revealed what patents Nintendo are claiming were infringed on.
"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," said Pocketpair. "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.
"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."
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are each seeking an injunction and damages of five million yen plus late payment damages.
Pocketpair added, "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."
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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These 3 patent applications were submitted AFTER Palworld released??? Lol this is just Nintendo being petty and mad they were caught with their pants down thinking no game company would use similar game mechanics. Also, 5 million yen to Pokémon Company and 5 million yen to Nintendo? That's only $66,000 total! If Nintendo actually had a full case, they would've sued for millions.
This lawsuit reads more like a warning by Nintendo to game companies in the future rather than the present. Just setting the precedent going forward.
Well, a hack seller actually makes Nintendo lose money, I'm not sure Pokémon has lost a single sale just because Palworld exists.
Curious if settling out of court would set precedent in the eyes of Japanese law
Pocketpair has some nerve making a better monster catching game than the company thats been making monster catching games for decades.
Ninty and pokemon company salty they can't make a half decent game like palworld lol and that's saying something
This notion that someone can own an idea is ridiculous anyway. So whether their claims have any legal merit or not, they are nonsensical on a ethical level.
I've been a fan of Nintendo games and hardware for nearly 40 years now. But, I am most certainly not a fan of many of their business practices. And I absolutely do not support their despicable weaponization of the legal system.
This is an example of corporate scumbaggery.
Nintendo is suing Pocketpair over gameplay system patents Nintendo filed AFTER Palworld released. To make matters worse, one of the 3 gameplay systems they patented is riding around on the back of a monster, something that was in other games before Pokemon. This seems like nonsense and would set a horrible legal precedent if the judge sides with Nintendo.
The money isn't really the issue for Pocketpair, the amount Nintendo is suing for is basically pocket change compared to what Palworld grossed (considering it sold 15m copies on Steam alone in just the first month), it's moreso the principle of the matter.
Nintendo gonna go after every MMO of the past 20 years xD
15 million sold on Steam? Impressive!
If the lawsuit was based off Palworld basically just ripping off pokemon monster designs, I woulda agreed with Nintendo completely. Cuz that is pretty ridiculous and there was no reason the Palworld devs couldn't have just designed their own unique monsters. But the three patents listed were not only filed after Palworld came out, but it seems pretty outrageous any of those mechanics should be patentable.
Hope Nintendo loses this one. The idea that companies can patent gameplay mechanics is terrible for the industry. If that's how the industry operated since inception there wouldn't be a video game industry these days.
Nintendo just upset they lost at their game.
Fuck Nintendo and their last gen crap. Hoping they lose this case and Switch 2 fails.
I hope they lose the case...
And I hope Switch2 sells even better than Switch OG
Nintendo isn't a monolith... Their legal team isn't their creative team
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