Nintendo Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against Palworld developers Pocketpair

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Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, which makes the game Palworld.
www.nintendo.co.jp

News Release : Sep. 19, 2024 "Filing Lawsuit for Infringement of Patent Rights against Pocketpair, Inc."

Press release of Nintendo Co., Ltd.
www.nintendo.co.jp
September 19, 2024
To Whom It May Concern
The Pokémon Company
Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Filing Lawsuit for Infringement of Patent Rights against Pocketpair, Inc.​

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.

bsky.app

Joel (@wearejoel.bsky.social)

Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against Palworld developers Pocketpair “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.”...
bsky.app bsky.app


www.theverge.com

Nintendo and Pokémon are suing Palworld maker Pocketpair

Now the lawyers will battle.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com
 
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This is very interesting because PalWorld is very successful and they can't sue over ball and creature mechanics. I'm not sure how the designs are patent-related, but I would like to know what the patents are for.
 
Artisan Vistra said:
This is very interesting because PalWorld is very successful and they can't sue over ball and creature mechanics. I'm not sure how the designs are patent-related, but I would like to know what the patents are for.
Click to expand...
These are some of the patents that Nintendo and Pokemon own.

Patents Assigned to THE POKEMON COMPANY - Justia Patents Search

Justia - Patents - Patents and Patent Application Resources
patents.justia.com patents.justia.com
Patent number: 12083424
Abstract: A user breeds a virtual life form by practicing good sleep habits and stays motivated toward practicing good sleep habits while enjoying breeding the virtual life form. A game server manages progress of a breeding game of a virtual life form, the game server including circuitry configured to acquire sleep data that at least includes a sleep pattern indicating a bedtime and a wake-up time of a user; store the acquired sleep data as a sleep history; and update the breeding game based on the sleep pattern in the sleep history.
Type: Grant
Filed: August 1, 2022
Date of Patent: September 10, 2024
Assignee: THE POKEMON COMPANY
Inventors: Takayuki Shindo, Satoshi Ogawa, Kaname Kosugi, Marie Shuto, Koya Nakahata

Publication number: 20240286040
Abstract: In an example of a game program, a ground boarding target object or an air boarding target object is selected by a selection operation, and a player character is caused to board the selected boarding target object. If the player character aboard the air boarding target object moves toward the ground, the player character is automatically changed to the state where the player character is aboard the ground boarding target object, and brought into the state where the player character can move on the ground.
Type: Application
Filed: May 2, 2024
Publication date: August 29, 2024
Applicants: NINTENDO CO., LTD., The Pokémon Company
Inventor: Kazumasa IWAO
 
cpvr said:
These are some of the patents that Nintendo and Pokemon own.

Patents Assigned to THE POKEMON COMPANY - Justia Patents Search

Justia - Patents - Patents and Patent Application Resources
patents.justia.com patents.justia.com
Patent number: 12083424
Abstract: A user breeds a virtual life form by practicing good sleep habits and stays motivated toward practicing good sleep habits while enjoying breeding the virtual life form. A game server manages progress of a breeding game of a virtual life form, the game server including circuitry configured to acquire sleep data that at least includes a sleep pattern indicating a bedtime and a wake-up time of a user; store the acquired sleep data as a sleep history; and update the breeding game based on the sleep pattern in the sleep history.
Type: Grant
Filed: August 1, 2022
Date of Patent: September 10, 2024
Assignee: THE POKEMON COMPANY
Inventors: Takayuki Shindo, Satoshi Ogawa, Kaname Kosugi, Marie Shuto, Koya Nakahata

Publication number: 20240286040
Abstract: In an example of a game program, a ground boarding target object or an air boarding target object is selected by a selection operation, and a player character is caused to board the selected boarding target object. If the player character aboard the air boarding target object moves toward the ground, the player character is automatically changed to the state where the player character is aboard the ground boarding target object, and brought into the state where the player character can move on the ground.
Type: Application
Filed: May 2, 2024
Publication date: August 29, 2024
Applicants: NINTENDO CO., LTD., The Pokémon Company
Inventor: Kazumasa IWAO
Click to expand...
This sounds really abstract and infringes upon the creativity and freedom of any developer.

Like this one:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1836836701752463534

Something anyone should have the right to when implemented right.
 
Lol next Nintendo will also try to Patent Lyn's specific Thigh PLOT shape and size.
 
Nintendo should instead be taking an opportunity to push Pokémon as a less violent Palworld. Instead they're going to get a huge amount of negative publicity and irritate the gaming community. Idiots.
 
Censored Palworld just sounds like a self-deprecating title, especially with internet culture that has made jokes right and left about whether Pokemon was adult-like YouTube parodies and specific Pokemon fan art and videos.
 
More on the lawsuit:

1. Details of the Lawsuit

The Plaintiffs claim that Palworld, released by us on January 19, 2024, infringes upon the following three patents held by the Plaintiffs, and are seeking an injunction against the game and compensation for a portion of the damages incurred between the date of registration of the patents and the date of filing of this lawsuit.

2. Target Patents

  • Patent No. 7545191
    • Patent Application Date: July 30, 2024
    • Patent Registration Date: August 27, 2024
  • Patent No. 7493117
    • Patent Application Date: February 26, 2024
    • Patent Registration Date: May 22, 2024
  • Patent No. 7528390
    • Patent Application Date: March 5, 2024
    • Patent Registration Date: July 26, 2024
3. Summary of the Claim

  • An injunction against Palworld
  • Payment of five million yen plus late payment damages to The Pokémon Company
  • Payment of five million yen plus late payment damages to Nintendo Co., Ltd.
We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings.

Please note that we will refrain from responding individually to inquiries regarding this case. If any matters arise that require public notice, we will announce them on our website, etc.
 
I've never been a fan of Nintendo as a company because of things like this and also going after ROM hacks when they don't affect sales of games. Anyways I don't think Pocketpair is going to get hurt too bad by this, so many people play and support Palworld and think this whole fiasco is ridiculous.
 

Underlined terms, unless they specifically reference another article, point to our own dictionary-style definitions.

Context:

  • We’ve been following the Nintendo v. Pocketpair (effectively, Pokémon v. Palworld) patent case from a distance, and have previously asked locals to go to the Tokyo District Court on our behalf to inspect the record (September 16, 2025 games fray article). games fray‘s patent-focused sibling site ip fray also keeps an eye on developments in that increasingly interesting forum (May 24, 2026 ip fray article).
  • In parallel to the Japanese infringement lawsuit that started in 2024, Nintendo has been trying to obtain additional patents that it could potentially assert against Palworld in new cases. But both the Japan Patent Office (JPO) (October 29, 2025 games fray article, and with a view to Palworld Mobile: May 14, 2026 games fray article) and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) (April 1, 2026 games fray article) have lately grown skeptical of Nintendo’s game-rule patent applications.
  • Pocketpair raised various defenses, but also made various changes to Palworld’s gameplay mechanics to work around Nintendo’s patents-in-suit.
What’s new:

  • The public record strongly suggests that the parties have completed their written pleadings and the submission of evidence, such as expert reports.
  • The court has scheduled a presentation of evidence for October 1, and will express an opinion on November 9, 2026.
  • Nintendo initially targeted all Palworld versions, but in November 2025, the plaintiffs (Nintendo and The Pokémon Company) amended the scope of their claims (in terms of what they are seeking from the court, not in terms of a patent claim) so that the case is now limited to older versions of Palworld (i.e., before Pocketpair made changes to eliminate patent exposure).
Direct impact:

  • Based on the narrowed scope of the case, we cannot see any pathway to victory over any current or very recent Palworld version (nor Palworld 1.0, which should launch soon) for Nintendo. There will be no injunction with real-world impact.
  • All that is left of Nintendo’s case at this stage relates to old versions of Palworld. Even if — which is far from a given — Nintendo overcame all of the usual hurdles (defending its patents against Pocketpair’s invalidity contentions, proving infringement, and ultimately proving that any damage was caused by the alleged infringement), the most it could get is JPY 5 million, the equivalent of $30K. That is chump change for either party, and just a rounding error compared to Nintendo’s litigation expenses.
Wider ramifications: Palworld 1.0 is going to launch soon, and given that Nintendo’s patent assertions can’t impact that release in any meaningful way, the question is whether Nintendo will recognize that patents are not the answer to competition in this space or bring additional lawsuits against Pocketpair. The fact that Nintendo is finded it increasingly hard to obtain game-rule patents in key jurisdictions may dissuade Nintendo (and possibly also other companies in the games industry) from filing any further lawsuits of this kind.
We discussed Pocketpair’s defenses on prior occasions. In the further proceedings, Pocketpair submitted expert opinions by former judges to counter Nintendo’s accusations.

Normally, this case would now be ripe for settlement. Sony and Tencent also worked it out (December 18, 2025 games fray article), at least for now.

Patent litigation is not a profitable business for Nintendo. In a case over game controllers, they obtained a €7M ($8M) damages award after 15 years of suing and it’s not over yet (December 16, 2025 games fray article). But Nintendo’s last annual report stated a $40M loss from patent litigation (May 8, 2026 games fray article), probably attributable in no small part to Nintendo’s settlement of litigation that a licensing firm brought over former BlackBerry patents (December 2, 2025 ip fray article).



Source: https://gamesfray.com/ahead-of-octo...alworld-versions-it-may-get-30k-chump-change/
 
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