It may have taken a bit of time, but Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are officially taking legal action against Palworld developer, Pocketpair, Inc. Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair on September 18, 2024, claiming that Palworld "infringes multiple patent rights."
Nintendo made this announcement through their social channels and posted a statement on their corporate website. This lawsuit seeks "an injunction against infringement" as well as "compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld" infringes on the unspecified patent rights.
The full statement by Nintendo can be found below.
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.
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.
Speculation that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company would go after Palworld seemed to quiet a bit as the weeks and months went by without any action being taken. It would be a fair assumption to say that Nintendo's legal team were working quite a bit behind the scenes to see if they had an actual case on their hands before moving forward with this lawsuit.
Both Pokemon and Palworld feature cute, animal-like creatures that co-exist with humans in the world. While Pokemon is more about building up a team of Pokemon to do battle against other Pokemon, Palworld is more like a survival crafting game. Several of the creatures present in Palworld have taken some heavy and obvious "inspiration" from various Pokemon designs.
