Palworld is THE big surprise success of this year, even more than Helldivers 2, supported by Sony and released shortly after it. A month after its launch, the Pocketpair title had already exceeded the milestone probably considered unattainable by the studio of 25 million players.
It is true that on paper, Palworld seemed to have some ingredients to perform. The Pals, small creatures inspired by Pokémon to be captured in the game, were already being talked about well before the release. To the point of attracting the attention of the ruthless Nintendo to the content of Palworld. The Kyoto firm is just moving up a gear: it has just filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair.
Nintendo takes Pocketpair to court, the developer of Palworld responds
The press release published by Nintendo on September 18 on its official website is laconic. “Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair. a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair,” he says.
Nintendo is indeed talking about patent plagiarism and not copyright infringement. The problem would therefore come more from an innovative game mechanic than from the design of certain Pals heavily inspired by that of Pokémon. David Hansel, an intellectual property lawyer interviewed by VGC, believes that the battle will be difficult to win for Nintendo. The company will have to prove "that there was copying, and not just influence," a very difficult task.
It is hard to imagine seeing Pocketpair condemned by the Japanese courts because Palworld allows the capture of fantastic creatures like the Pokémon games, for example. The outcome might have been different if the game released in January required doing so by throwing red and white spheres at the Pals.
Pocketpair studio CEO and game director Takuro Mizobe stated earlier this year that his studio had no intention of copying other companies' intellectual property. He more recently confided that he had never been contacted by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company regarding patent or copyright infringement.
After Nintendo's official announcement of its complaint, Pocketpair was still quick to to respond publicly. "We will initiate appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the allegations of patent infringement. At this time, we do not know the specific patents we are accused of infringing," the developer of Palworld wrote on X. A legal battle, the verdict of which will probably be long in coming, begins between the parties.
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