Nintendo announces a lawsuit against Pocketpair for patent infringement in
Palworld, Pocketpair's creature collecting game. The
prospect of a
lawsuit came up almost immediately after Palworld's
hugly
successful Early Access launch
in
January, as its similarities to Pokémon inspired the description Pokémon with
guns. The silence since then suggested the plagiarism controversy may have blown
over, but apparently lawyers have been busy lawyering in the interim, and a
lawsuit is now filed. A
response
from Pocketpair says it is so far unaware of "specific patents" it has
violated, apologizes "for any worry or discomfort that this news has caused,"
and mostly talks about the game's success (thanks
BBC News). Here's
word from Nintendo:
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.