Palworld developer Pocketpair has responded to the recent lawsuit from Nintendo over what the company claims is patent infringement. Yesterday, we reported that Nintendo slapped Pocketpair with a lawsuit claiming that Palworld infringed on some Nintendo and The Pokemon Company patents. However, it seems that the lawsuit hasn’t revealed what these actually are.
Pocketpair shared a statement citing its confusion surrounding the lawsuit. The studio says it isn’t aware of any patent infringements and the current facts of the case haven’t been made clear yet.
“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.”
Nintendo claims that Pocketpair has infringed on “multiple” undisclosed patents. The keyword here is “undisclosed”. Usually, a developer would have to research what patents belong to who when creating a game to avoid copying these legally binding restrictions. For example, Warner Bros. Games has patented the Nemesis system from Shadow of War. This means another developer cannot create a similar revenge system in their game without paying WB Games license fees – once approved, of course.
Since Pocketpair shared its confusion, fans have predicted what patents Palworld might have infringed. Some fans say the capture mechanic in the game might be it. Perhaps Nintendo and The Pokemon Company own the patent to catch monsters in balls? Maybe it is the actual monster-taming mechanics? But many games feature this system.
At the moment the general public is just as confused as Pocketpair. While the lawsuit is controversial, it would have helped if Nintendo provided information on the actual patents it owns which the game has infringed. So right now, we are all waiting in anticipation.
Nintendo has had beef with Pocketpair since the launch of Palworld. The game, which was released in early 2024 amassed over 20 million players within its first few weeks in early access. The game’s monster style was compared to Pokemon with some very questionable comparisons. The Pokemon Company already raised concerns over the similarities but the lawsuit now makes this official.
