Here are the patents Nintendo and the Pokémon Company are suing Palworld about, according to Pocketpair
Palworld developers Pocketpair have finally revealed which patents Nintendo and the Pokémon Company are suing them about. It looks like they're focusing on the act of throwing capsular items to catch or release monsters, together with the usage of monsters as mounts.
If you've somehow yet to encounter Palworld, it's a bestselling survival game that takes hefty - some would say, scandalous - inspiration from Pokémon, with players poaching Pokésque critters using magic spheres, and deploying them as soldiers and minions.
When Palworld hit Steam in January, there was an outcry from some Pokémon players that it had broken Pokémon's copyright. After an ominous interlude, Nintendo announced legal proceedings against Pocketpair in September, declaring that the corporation would "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."
Rather than going after Palworld's monster designs, which definitely look a hell of a lot like certain Pokémon, Nintendo claim Pocketpair have broken their patents on specific game mechanics. They didn't specify which patents at the time, but Pocketpair have now listed three in a post published today. They also report that Nintendo and the Pokémon Company are seeking an injunction against Palworld, together with late payment damages for the use of their patents.
The formatting of Pocketpair's post makes the exact amount sought in damages unclear - it could be that Nintendo and the Pokémon Company want five million yen each, or that they want five million yen in total. For clarity, the Pokémon Company isn't a Nintendo subsidiary but the result of a joint investment by the companies holding the copyright and trademark on Pokémon - Game Freak, Creatures and Nintendo.
"The Plaintiffs claim that "Palworld," released by us on January 19, 2024, infringes upon the following three patents
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