Nintendo And The Pokémon Company Officially File Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against ‘Palworld’ Developer Pocketpair, Inc
In a move that players knew was likely coming but hoped it never would, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have officially filed suit against Pocketpair Inc. and their popular monster-collecting game Palworld on the grounds of alleged “patent infringement“.
RELATED: The Pokémon Company Wins Historic $15 Million Copyright Lawsuit Against Chinese Clone
Officially filed with the Tokyo District Court on September 18th and announced the next same day via a joint press release issued by the Pokémon IP co-owners, 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.”
“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,” the press release concluded.
At current, the full filing has yet to be fully presented to the public. As such, it’s unclear just what specific “compensation”, and for what specific “damages”, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company will be seeking from Pocketpair Inc.
However, it should be noted that given that the lawsuit specifically takes aim at “patent infringement” and not just “copyright infringement”, it appears that more than just design similarities, the court battle will revolve around Palworld‘s use of such ‘similar’ Pokémon game mechanics, particularly its ‘throwing an orb to capture a monster’ gameplay system.
Notably, this official legal move comes roughly eight-months after The Pokémon Company announced that, in light of having “received many inquiries” from players who feared that Palworld was deliberately and whole-sale ripping off Pokémon, that they would be launching an official investigation into the matter.
“We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game,” announced The Pokémon Company in a January 15th press release. “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon. We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world, and work to bring the world together through Pokémon in the future.”
Further, this lawsuit was filed just one day after The Pokémon Company won a copyright infringement lawsuit against Chinese-developed title Pocket Monster Reissue (JP: Koudaiyaoguai Fukelp), with the China-based Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court ruling that the four companies involved in the blatant Poké-clone development had knowingly violated numerous copyrights.
Originally seeking $72 million in damages against the purported $42 million Pocket Monster Reissue had pulled in, when the dust settled, The Pokémon Company was ultimately awarded a total of $15 million in damages from one of the involved parties. Meanwhile, the remaining three have filed an appeal against the ruling.
As of writing, Pocketpair Inc. has yet to offer any public comment regarding their new legal troubles.
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