Earlier this year, Palworld was one of the hottest games to play on Steam. Although overall gameplay mechanics are a bit different, the creatures look very similar to several popular Pokemon from Nintendo. Well, it was only a matter of time before Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair Inc., the makers of Palworld.
On Nintendo's website, the lawsuit letter was published online and the patent infringement lawsuit was filed in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. (HQ: 2-10-2 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, “Defendant” hereafter) on September 18, 2024. Obviously, these two companies are suing Pocketpair for "infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights".
You might be surprised that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company took this long to take action against Palworld. Well, it could be that over the past few months, the lawyers could have been collecting evidence and whatnot to prepare. Nintendo also ended the letter by "taking any necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself".
This is not the first time that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have filed a lawsuit. Even a few indie Pokemon fan-made games got shut down because of that. Also, Pocketpair has not yet responded so until then, we are keeping an eye on how this drama continues.
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