It looks as if the ongoing lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair is just starting to heat up. In a new post on the company’s official website, Pocketpair detailed some of the issues that Nintendo and The Pokémon Company lobbied against them. While the site refers to only the specific patent numbers, you can look these up to see just what issues both companies are suing over. As it turns out, one of the patents includes “game programs in which a player character throws a ball at a character in a virtual space, capturing the character and setting it in the player character’s possession.”
As Pocketpair writes on its site, “The Plaintiffs claim that ‘Palworld,’ released by us on January 19, 2024, infringes upon the following three patents held by the Plaintiffs, and are seeking an injunction against the game and compensation for a portion of the damages incurred between the date of registration of the patents and the date of filing of this lawsuit.” The total cost amounts to ¥10 million (roughly $65,500) with 5 million going to both Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.
What’s the point of the lawsuit against Pocketpair’s Palworld?
On social media, many are wondering what the point of the lawsuit is if the monetary amount is so low. Couldn’t Pocketpair just pay the fine and be done with things? That’s where the injunction kicks in. In a legal sense, an injunction is a court order to stop or start doing a specific action. In the case of this lawsuit, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are demanding that Pocketpair remove mechanics from Palworld that infringe on its patents. This would set an awful precedent for other Pokémon-likes that otherwise bear no resemblance to Nintendo’s franchise.
It’s curious how the patents, in question, were only filed this year seemingly as a response to the popularity that Palworld was gaining. It makes me wonder if Pocketpair could actually fight this in court, though this entire lawsuit might just be a way for Nintendo to strong-arm the developer into submission.
Leave a Comment
Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
