UPDATE 19.09.2024: Pocketpair has responded to the lawsuit with a statement on their official website. In it, they confirm that they, too, are unaware of what patents they are accused of having infringed upon and will begin the “appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement.” They also say that they will “do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.” You read the full statement from Pocketpair here.
Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have just announced their plans to sue Palworld developers Pocketpair Inc. for patent infringement. The news was confirmed in a statement on the official Nintendo website. In the statement, Nintendo Co., Ltd, together with The Pokemon Company, confirm that they have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair Inc. in Tokyo District Court.
The full statement from Nintendo reads as follows:
“Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter), together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. (HQ: 2-10-2 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, “Defendant” hereafter) on September 18, 2024.
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 News Release: September 19th, 2024
Palworld, 2024’s First Big Hit
Pocketpair’s Palworld was released back in January and, even prior to launch, it received a lot of flak and attention for its alleged copying of many iconic Pokemon designs (which you can learn more about in this article we made on Palworld’s designs back in February). Despite that scepticism, it still managed to become one of the most-played titles of the year, reaching over 2 million concurrent players on Steam alone.
However, after The Pokemon Company released a statement on Palworld shortly after the game’s release – where they said Nintendo would “take appropriate action against those that infringe on our intellectual property rights related to Pokemon,” – many considered the matter settled. 8 months have passed since that initial statement and Nintendo has finally decided to act.
Interestingly, Nintendo is filing a lawsuit against Pocketpair for patent infringement rather than copyright infringement. Patent infringement is classified as the “unlawful use, selling, or copying of a patented invention” whereas copyright infringement is the “use of works protected by copyright without permission”. The Pokemon Company holds a long list of patents and, according to the statement, Pocketpair is said to have infringed upon multiple of these patents. We are unaware of which specific patents Pocketpair has said to have infringed upon with Palworld.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, The Ninth Generation of Pokemon
SOURCE: Filing Lawsuit for Infringement of Patent Rights against Pocketpair, Inc. Blog Post
