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.
Or Nintendos D-padTo be fair, that was a novel invention that nobody had done before, and a correct use of patents, though.
(Pretty sure that the Namco one was pre-dated by the 1987 Invade-a-Load tape-loader for the Commodore 64, though.)On the other hand, it's being speculated that Nintendo is going after Palworld on patent grounds due to holding patents on the concept of catching monsters in a ball - something that was inspired by real-world gachapon toys that existed before the Pokemon games did. It just goes to show how little they have going for them in this case if that's all they could come up with, so hopefully they'll lose this one and won't be able to enact chilling effects on future competition.
Last edited by ToddL on 19 September 2024 at 2:14 pm UTC
[...] It just goes to show how little they have going for them in this case if that's all they could come up with, so hopefully they'll lose this one and won't be able to enact chilling effects on future competition.They'll also have a really hard time enforcing such patents, as software and gameplay mechanics are not universally patentable over the world.
StalePopcorn Sep 19
Last edited by Leahi84 on 19 September 2024 at 3:56 pm UTC
Linux_Rocks Sep 19
Cyba.Cowboy Sep 20
Weird they go for patent infringement and not for copyright infringement
They appear to be using Poké Ball-like items in the trailer for Palworld on Steam... Maybe it's something to do with this?
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)
I beg to differ - I think Pokémon Legends: Arceus is amazing... The "main" Pokémon games, whilst not bad, have been pretty "meh" for a long time now though; same s*%t with slightly-tweaked Pokémon.
On the other hand, it's being speculated that Nintendo is going after Palworld on patent grounds due to holding patents on the concept of catching monsters in a ball
I'm guessing one of the issues is about Patent Publication No. 20240278129(the mechanic of throwing the Poke-ball in third person, in Legends Arceus)
Ah-ha! Exactly as I thought...
something that was inspired by real-world gachapon toys that existed before the Pokemon games did.
Well this is interesting... I didn't know this!
Weird they go for patent infringement and not for copyright infringement
They appear to be using Poké Ball-like items in the trailer for Palworld on Steam... Maybe it's something to do with this?
On the other hand, it's being speculated that Nintendo is going after Palworld on patent grounds due to holding patents on the concept of catching monsters in a ball
I'm guessing one of the issues is about Patent Publication No. 20240278129(the mechanic of throwing the Poke-ball in third person, in Legends Arceus)
Ah-ha! Exactly as I thought...
something that was inspired by real-world gachapon toys that existed before the Pokemon games did.
Well this is interesting... I didn't know this!
Let me also introduce you to Robotrek:
Robotrek (1994) was another early title similar to Pokémon. It was a predecessor to the core gameplay of Pokémon in that the protagonist does not himself fight, but instead sends out robots, which are kept in capsules outside of battle.[6] There was a resemblance in functionality between these capsules and the Poké Balls used in Pokémon.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster-taming_game#History
So the patent is for monsters being caught in balls? How is that worthy of being a patent?
Well this is interesting... I didn't know this!I'm sure you know capsule-toys, though - from there, it's not a big step to the "Capsule Monsters" concept-art that was the earliest known part of Pokemon's development.
Let me also introduce you to Robotrek:Yep, Robotrek is prior-art, too!
And the way Poke Balls are depicted as functioning is obviously inspired by Capsule Corp's capsules from the Dragon Ball franchise, too.
ElectricPrism Sep 20
I love the Streisand effect
Nintenbullies.
TheCrafters001 Sep 20
I have a hard time believing that Nintendo will actually win the lawsuit...
I can believe that the indie devs don't have the money to get through this in the first place.
I guess it's "non-trivial" to do the legal defense on your own in patent cases.
Last edited by Eike on 20 September 2024 at 10:44 am UTC
Or Nintendos D-padTo be fair, that was a novel invention that nobody had done before, and a correct use of patents, though.
On the other hand, it's being speculated that Nintendo is going after Palworld on patent grounds due to holding patents on the concept of catching monsters in a ball - something that was inspired by real-world gachapon toys that existed before the Pokemon games did. It just goes to show how little they have going for them in this case if that's all they could come up with, so hopefully they'll lose this one and won't be able to enact chilling effects on future competition.
Yeah really does seem like they're looking for the tiniest thing as a reason to go after them
I wonder if it's possible for the devs to change some things in their game to avoid these lawsuits? If it means having to change major game mechanics could suck but better then pulling the plug entirely
I've never had interest in palworld but obviously it became really popular so this makes me feel for the players
Gets harder and harder for me to justify buying any more nintendo switch games the way they keep going >:(
https://chng.it/b4TQYrcmj2
Cyba.Cowboy Sep 20
I'm sure you know capsule-toys, though - from there, it's not a big step to the "Capsule Monsters" concept-art that was the earliest known part of Pokemon's development.
Oh, of course... I'm an early 80s baby, so I (now) remember those!
And now that you mention it, I think it would be pretty hard to argue that Nintendo came up with the whole Poké Ball concept...
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