You might want to grab a big bucket of popcorn for this one, as the big fight is about to begin. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have formally gone after Palworld maker Pocketpair.
Interestingly, this is specifically about alleged patent infringement. It's not exactly surprising though, considering Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced back in January they were currently investigating Palworld. Obviously they felt there was enough to go through with a legal battle.
From the press release:
Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter), together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. (HQ: 2-10-2 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, “Defendant” hereafter) on September 18, 2024.
This 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.
Business lawyer Richard Hoeg posting on X / Twitter brings up a good point here:
Probably going to need more specifics before I can comment more completely, but Palworld is such a different type of game from Pokémon, it’s hard to imagine what patents (*not* copyrights) might have been even plausibly infringed. Initial gut reaction is Nintendo may be reaching.
What actual patents could Palworld have infringed on? Palworld may have similarities, but as a whole it is a vastly different game to anything Pokémon that has been released so far. Plus, there's been a great many other creature collecting games released before Palworld, and lots of games that also have similar game mechanics to other parts of Palworld so this lawsuit could have a knock-on effect elsewhere if Nintendo win.
Palworld is rated Steam Deck Playable by Valve and Gold on ProtonDB.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
pleasereadthemanual Sep 19
Do they have a real case, or are they trying to intimidate?
Some patents The Pokemon Company owns: https://patents.justia.com/assignee/the-pokemon-company
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if it's more about merch than the actual game. I know many people who would go nuts over a Chillet plushie and with Sony in tow it could actually have a noticeable impact on Pokémon merch sales in the future. Better not take chances and instead sue the company into the ground beforehand.
Some patents The Pokemon Company owns: https://patents.justia.com/assignee/the-pokemon-company
Wow, really worth having a look. Some pretty hilarious and/or wild things to find there.
GAMIFICATION OF HEALTH AWARENESS BASED ON A WAKE-UP TIME
An object is to provide a user with motivation to enjoy waking up in the morning and guide the user to sufficient awakening by generating a breeding event in a breeding game of a virtual life form when the user wakes up in the morning.
Some patents The Pokemon Company owns: https://patents.justia.com/assignee/the-pokemon-companyBS filed 2019-2023 and granted 2023-2024... Yep, those NEVER existed and are totally new innovations, nothing like this ever have been done, nothing in those decades, a half century of games and virtual worlds...
Sadly... will be plenty of fan(atic)s and general corporate backside lickers defending it.
ShadowXeldron Sep 19
Also, the new Pokemon games are crap. I need to say this every single time whenever someone brings the series up, but the Switch games are pretty dire (except maybe Legends Arceus... which is really just average), and I assume that's meant a lot of people are going for alternatives. I bet they've been scrambling for ages to find an excuse to go after this particular game since it's the one that received the most publicity.
I hope Nintendo and TPCi lose. That'll knock them down a few pegs.
GAMIFICATION OF HEALTH AWARENESS BASED ON A WAKE-UP TIME
An object is to provide a user with motivation to enjoy waking up in the morning and guide the user to sufficient awakening by generating a breeding event in a breeding game of a virtual life form when the user wakes up in the morning.
CN: lewd, making the obvious joke
Spoiler, click me
I'm sorry.
Was on wishlist anyways
GAMIFICATION OF HEALTH AWARENESS BASED ON A WAKE-UP TIME
An object is to provide a user with motivation to enjoy waking up in the morning and guide the user to sufficient awakening by generating a breeding event in a breeding game of a virtual life form when the user wakes up in the morning.
CN: lewd, making the obvious joke
Spoiler, click me
I think a different kind of breeding would provide far better motivation to enjoy waking up in the morning
I'm sorry.
I don't think they can patent that.
Those Palworld devs earnt their money, it doesn't belong to nintendo
Weird they go for patent infringement and not for copyright infringement
They know there's no copyright case, but patents are such a mess because people have managed to patent just about everything. If you're old enough, I'm sure you remember all the SCO nonsense.
Anyway, I can't picture Japanese court without imagining Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney shouting, "Objection!!!!"
Please tell me more about "software patents", heh. It's one of humanity's biggest cancers.
Patents are fine, they expire after 20 years (after which anyone can use the patent so it contributes to our collective advancement of science and innovation). Copyright with its 'life of author + 90 years' is absolute cancer.
EDIT: there are also ways to get patents declared invalid. A patent needs to be properly registered and published, it needs to be novel, it needs to be non-obvious, and there's also a bunch of jurisdiction-dependent requirements around whether something actually can be patented.
Basically I'm saying that patents are a million times more reasonable than copyright and despite patent trolls being a nuisance I still think the benefits (allowing inventors to profit off their inventions) outweigh the disadvantages (stupid lawsuits).
Last edited by tmtvl on 19 September 2024 at 12:27 pm UTC
GAMIFICATION OF HEALTH AWARENESS BASED ON A WAKE-UP TIME
An object is to provide a user with motivation to enjoy waking up in the morning and guide the user to sufficient awakening by generating a breeding event in a breeding game of a virtual life form when the user wakes up in the morning.
CN: lewd, making the obvious joke
Spoiler, click me
I think a different kind of breeding would provide far better motivation to enjoy waking up in the morning
I'm sorry.
I don't think they can patent that.
There's a joke here about Japan's present population crisis and big N's absurd legal team patenting intercourse, but I can't find it. I need my coffee!
Weird they go for patent infringement and not for copyright infringement
They know there's no copyright case, but patents are such a mess because people have managed to patent just about everything. If you're old enough, I'm sure you remember all the SCO nonsense.
Anyway, I can't picture Japanese court without imagining Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney shouting, "Objection!!!!"
I always think of the Namco patent having their older games playable in the loading screen, and how no one else was allowed to do that
Or Nintendos D-pad
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me