It’s Finally Happened, Nintendo Is Suing Palworld Developer Pocketpair (UPDATE)

When Pocketpair first revealed Palworld, people took note of the obvious visual similarities between the creatures in the open-world survival game and those in Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s long-running IP. Knowing Nintendo’s willingness to sue over such things, many guessed a lawsuit over copyright infringement would be making its way to Poketpair. But that never happened and the game went on to become fairly popular.

That’s changed some, however. Early this morning, Nintendo posted an announcement on the company website stating that the company is, in fact, filing a suit for infringement. But, rather than being a copyright suit, the company is seeking an “injunction against infringement” on “multiple patent rights”. And yes, they are looking to be compensated.

The announcement doesn’t offer more information beyond that. And, as others have pointed out, aside from the visual similarities, Pokemon and Palworld don’t have much else in common. So it isn’t easy to imagine what patents Poketpair could have infringed on.

That said, some speculate that it’s not the game itself they’re claiming infringement on. Pokepair has elected to start manufacturing merchandise for sale. As one individual posted, it could be that Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are suing over design rights “being infringed via merchandise”. It seems like a solid guess. But we won’t know until Nintendo says more.

N may be trying to allege that they’re infringing on design rights. Pocket Pair has started manufacturing which may be the key here. They can’t get them on copyright, but if they say their character’s design rights are being infringed via merchandise then that may be their angle.

— Julius Caesar (@AlmightyJCaesar) September 19, 2024

UPDATE

Pocketpair issued a statement on the company’s site regarding the lawsuit. At present, they aren’t sure about the specifics as they haven’t been notified as to which patents they may have infringed on. The statement goes on to add that they are a “small indie company based in Tokyo”, and that their goal “has always been to create fun games”.

The statement continues saying, “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.”