Nintendo's patents were designed to take on Palworld
On September 19, 2024, Nintendo Co. issued a press release stating that it, along with The Pokémon Company, had officially filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, Inc. in Tokyo District Court. As stated in the press release the "lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by [Pocketpair], infringes multiple patent rights."
Most people know what Pokémon is. Palworld, released into early access on January 19, 2024, arguably represents the most direct competition Pokémon has had in some time. For context, only one month after its release, Palworld had been played by over 25 million players, which puts it on par with the lifetime sales of recent blockbuster games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Hogwarts Legacy (both released in 2023).
Importantly, Palworld is a survival game developed and published by Pocketpair that is "set in an open world populated with animal-like creatures called 'Pals,' which players can battle and capture to use for base building, traversal, and combat."
While the news of this lawsuit is obviously provocative in its own right, the fact that Nintendo is bringing suit for patent infringement rather than copyright infringement ratchets up the interest level even further (not to mention the interesting timing of the lawsuit with the imminent Tokyo Game Show).
Some have speculated that Nintendo's assertion of patents indicates that it has "given up" on pursuing copyright infringement claims. Given Nintendo's notoriously litigious reputation, I don't necessarily believe that Nintendo has fully forgone the possibility of suing for copyright infringement (either in Japan or in other jurisdictions).
Still, I do think arguing that Pals too closely resemble their Pokémon counterparts in appearance might be tough sledding. Hence, as I detailed in my PatentDocs post from earlier this year, I would be surprised if we see Nintendo sue Pocketpair over
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