(Image courtesy of SteamDB.) “Palworld” developer Pocketpair, Inc. faces lawsuit from Nintendo
Aaron Preziosi
Connector Editor
On Sept. 19, 2024, Nintendo announced in a press release that it filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court together with The Pokémon Company against Pocketpair, Inc. on the grounds that their game “Palworld” infringes upon multiple patent rights belonging to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, saying the 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.” The press release continues, stating that “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.”
“Palworld” is an open-world action game featuring light survival and crafting elements. Players roam an island and craft items, build bases, and most importantly, battle with and tame “Pals”. This mechanic is the basis for Nintendo’s patent rights lawsuit. While details regarding the specifics of the legal battle between Nintendo and Pocketpair remain private, the prevailing conclusion among fans of both the “Pokémon” franchise and “Palworld” has been that the lawsuit is being filed due to the many glaring similarities between mechanics and character designs in both “Palworld” and across the “Pokémon” franchise. This is not the first time Nintendo has aggressively “protected the intellectual properties it has worked so hard to establish over the years,” either. The company has a notorious history of legally targeting emulation efforts, fan-made games, mods, websites, and even YouTube videos and Twitch live streamers. However, this case is a little different because of the precedent many fear it could set for the entire gaming industry.
The industry is no stranger to mechanics being patented: In 2021, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. patented the Nemesis system from their award-winning “Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor” and “Shadow of War” games, Electronic Arts patented the dialogue wheel from the “Mass Effect” franchise in 2011, and just last year in 2023, Nintendo also patented mechanics from “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.” What this means is that developers aren’t able to use mechanics similar to those protected by these patents, lest they infringe on the filing company’s patent rights. In the case of Nintendo and Pocketpair, the patent in question being leveraged to file the lawsuit covers a much larger subject matter. According to a summary published by Automaton Media, the patent outlines “aiming a capture item (Poké Ball) at a character placed on the field (Pokémon), releasing the capture item in a direction determined by player input, judgement of whether capturing is successful or not upon contact between the capture item and Pokémon, changing of the Pokémon’s status to ‘owned by the player’ when capturing is successful. In addition, the patent also covers the mechanic of having capture probability displayed to the player, regardless of whether it uses colors, graphics or numbers.”
While it may prove effective in the lawsuit against Pocketpair, fans and industry insiders are worried that it may give Nintendo a monopoly over the entire subgenre of games which are similar to Pokémon. Kiyoshi Kurihara, a Japanese patent attorney offered his two cents in an article published for Yahoo Japan (translated from Japanese): “It seems like it would be hard to avoid if you want to make a Pokémon-like game, and it’s easy to infringe if you’re not careful,” also calling it a “killer patent”.
However, it is ultimately Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s legal right to exercise ownership of their intellectual property, and they are able to take measures to protect it however they please. As of writing, the lawsuit has yet to reach a verdict and whether or not Pocketpair, Inc. will face legal consequences is up in the air. Despite everything, “Palworld” continues to receive updates on PC and recently released on PS5, and while it is easy to see Nintendo’s reasoning behind the lawsuit, it doesn’t mean the game can’t still be enjoyed around the world.