Pocketpair, developers of Palworld, have put up a statement on the new lawsuit that has been filed against them from Nintendo and The Pokemon Company.
Here's the statement in full:
Yesterday, a lawsuit was filed against our company for patent infringement.
We have received notice of this lawsuit and will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement.
At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details.
Pocketpair is a small indie game company based in Tokyo. Our goal as a company has always been to create fun games. We will continue to pursue this goal because we know that our games bring joy to millions of gamers around the world. Palworld was a surprise success this year, both for gamers and for us. We were blown away by the amazing response to the game and have been working hard to make it even better for our fans. We will continue improving Palworld and strive to create a game that our fans can be proud of.
It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.
We apologize to our fans and supporters for any worry or discomfort that this news has caused.
As always, thank you for your continued support of Palworld and Pocketpair.
When it comes to what patent infringement Nintendo / Pokemon could be going after Pocketpair for, well, Nintendo actually have quite a number of patents that are for some very specific game mechanics. Which could be really problematic not just for Pocketpair, but all game developers looking to do anything similar.
Take for example this patent (approved in Japan, pending in the USA), that covers the feature of capturing creatures by throwing an object and sending out a character (like a Pokemon) to engage in combat.
Remember, this is not about copyright infringement, so they're not specifically going after any of the creature designs, but it's about the patents.
This is going to be a legal fight to remember. One perhaps for the history books.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Take for example this patent (approved in Japan, pending in the USA), that covers the feature of capturing creatures by throwing an object and sending out a character (like a Pokemon) to engage in combat.I'm surprised this was approved, considering that there's prior-art - the 1994 SNES RPG Robotrek featured robots who were kept in capsules and sent out into battle, for example.
Also, at this point in time, almost 30 years after Pokemon debuted (if they'd patented this back then, it would've expired by now - I'm not sure why they left it so long!), the creatures-in-capsules concept could fairly be considered to be scènes à faire, much like happened with fighting-game tropes in the outcome of Capcom U.S.A. Inc. v. Data East Corp..
Turkeysteaks 20 Sep 2024
It should not be legal to patent things like that for software. All of software is iterative, and some of the absolute best products have come from expanding or twisting an idea that was previously made. They're not even that specific - I can think of some games very unlike pokemon that also have those mechanics.
Next Nintendo will be patenting the mechanic to jump in a two dimensional world...
Linux_Rocks 20 Sep 2024
https://chng.it/b4TQYrcmj2
I'm surprised this was approved, considering that there's prior-art - the 1994 SNES RPG Robotrek featured robots who were kept in capsules and sent out into battle, for example.
Well, the people who work at the patent office can't know everything, so especially when a large important entity like Nintendo comes along I can well imagine they just do a cursory glance at the application, briefly consider if they know anything that would be an issue with it, and just give the okay.
Anyway, my expectation is that Nintendo isn't going to take it all the way to court, they're probably aiming at an out-of-court settlement and if that doesn't happen they'll probably back off.
I'm surprised this was approved, considering that there's prior-art - the 1994 SNES RPG Robotrek featured robots who were kept in capsules and sent out into battle, for example.Not a lawyer, but as far as I know, the only prior art searches done by the patent office before approval is by looking at current/pending/prior patents.
Anyway, my expectation is that Nintendo isn't going to take it all the way to court, they're probably aiming at an out-of-court settlement and if that doesn't happen they'll probably back off.That sadly seems likely and is of course the classic strategy of patent trolls.
The patent mentioned above is the classic case of a "Moby Dick Support Device" https://seegras.discordia.ch/Blog/the-moby-dick-support-device/
On an unrelated note, "game mechanics" and -rules are explicitly not copyrightable.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around why an entirely fictional idea should be a patentable kind of thing.
Last edited by tohur on 21 Sep 2024 at 5:19 am UTC
Last edited by tohur on 21 Sep 2024 at 5:20 am UTC
It is sad to see.
TheRiddick 21 Sep 2024
there is NO way that can stand.
Perhaps their strategy is simply to bankrupt them in legal fees. Not to win.
Wouldn't be the first time.there is NO way that can stand.
Perhaps their strategy is simply to bankrupt them in legal fees. Not to win.
Or, to use the fact that a full trial would bankrupt the opponent with legal fees, to force concessions in a settlement.
Well Nintendo should fail this law suit.. has come to light today the patents they are suing Palworld over were filed in May 2024 and granted LAST month... there is NO way that can stand.So . . . even the filing, after Palworld came out. Actually, I would figure the Palworld folks should be able to even avoid a huge expensive trial if that's all Nintendo have got . . . I mean, not an expert, but surely a motion to dismiss would have a pretty good chance.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 21 Sep 2024 at 8:30 am UTC
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