Nintendo sues Palworld creator Pocketpair for patent infringement
Palworld developer Pocketpair faces legal action from Nintendo and The Pokemon Company
Nintendo has announced that it has sued Pocketpair, the developer behind Palworld, for alleged infringement of “multiple patent rights.” The company seeks an injunction against Pocketpair’s alleged infringement and compensation for any damages.
Since its release, Palworld has been called “Pokemon with Guns” by many fans. The comparisons with Pokemon are obvious, from the capture of creatures to the designs of Palworld’s creatures themselves. The game launched on PC and Xbox in January, and it was a huge success on both platforms. Ten million gamers played the game on Xbox, and a further 15 million have played the game on PC through Steam.
In January, The Pokemon Company released a statement confirming that they “intend to investigate” Palworld. Now, both The Pokemon Company and Nintendo have taken legal action. Nintendo’s statement on this legal action is available to read below.
Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter), together with The Pokemon 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.
Pocketpair has since released a public response to Nintendo’s lawsuit, which you can read below. They claim to be unaware of the patents they have allegedly infringed, stating that they have “not been notified of such details.” The company regrets having to spend time and money on this lawsuit, as it will take away resources from Palworld’s ongoing development. Palworld is an early access game on PC and Xbox, which means that the game’s development is ongoing. Recently, Pocketpair started teasing a PlayStation 5 release for the game, something that is guaranteed to generate strong sales for PocketPair.
Regarding the Lawsuit
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.
Currently, it is unknown why Nintendo have waited this long to take action against PocketPair. Is it because of the game’s planned PlayStation release?
You can join the discussion on Palworld’s creator getting sued by Nintendo on the OC3D Forums.
