Nintendo & The Pokemon Company hit Palworld with infringement lawsuit

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, the creators of Palworld, seeking compensation for damages.

On January 24, at the height of Palworld’s hype, The Pokemon Company addressed accusations of the game copying Pokemon, saying it intended to investigate the new release bearing a striking resemblance to its own franchise.

Nintendo CEO, Shuntaro Furukawa, also responded to concerns of Palworld infringing on its IP, promising they would not hesitate to protect their series. However, Furukawa did not mention Pocketpair nor Palworld by name, merely generalizing.

In the months that followed, Palworld’s director confirmed they hadn’t heard anything from Nintendo’s camp.

That all changed on September 19. Nintendo and The Pokemon Company announced they have jointly filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair.

Filed a day prior on September 18 in the Tokyo District Court, the suit seeks compensation for damages that Pocketpair allegedly caused as the result of their infringement of the Pokemon IP.

“This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the ground that Palworld, a game developed by the Defendant, infringed multiple patent rights,” Nintendo wrote in its press release.

As for the specific patents Palworld’s developers have infringed on, it is unclear as Nintendo nor The Pokemon Company has spoken further on the matter. There’s also no publicly available copy of the lawsuit at the time of writing.

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have 25 patents filed together as Assignees. This is far from the first joint lawsuit.

“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.”

Upon Palworld’s viral release, it was hit with accusations of being a copycat of Pokemon, with various creature designs looking very similar to ones from Nintendo’s series.

In the months after its release, Nintendo issued several DMCA takedowns in connection to Palworld.

A video showcasing a Pokemon mod for Palworld was taken down by Nintendo. The mod sought to bring in various models from Pokemon into Pocketpair’s game.

Additionally, a Palworld fan was sent a DMCA takedown for a Sparkit design they had made themselves, despite the creature being designed by Pocketpair, not Nintendo.

Pocketpair responds to Nintendo lawsuit

Upon the announcement of Nintendo and The Pokemon Company’s lawsuit, Bucky, the Global Community Manager for Pocketpair was the first to respond in a now deleted tweet. They didn’t say a whole lot, however, merely sharing a simple smiling emoji.

Now Pocketpair has also officially responded to the lawsuit calling it “truly unfortunate” in a tweet and thanked players for the overwhelming response when the game was released.

Dexerto has reached out to all parties for further comment.

Lawyer explains Nintendo vs Palworld lawsuit

Dexerto spoke with legal expert Richard Hoeg to break down the true nature of the lawsuit. While it’s still too early for specifics, especially without the full lawsuit being public, the practicing lawyer looked to clarify a few things.

Specifically, it’s worth noting the lawsuit is in relation to infringements on patents held by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, not copyright or trademark infringement.

Dexerto has also contacted the Tokyo District Court in attempt to obtain a copy of the lawsuit filing, though nothing has been shared just yet.