The Pokemon Company & Nintendo Declare Legal War on Palworld, Serve Pocketpair With Lawsuit Worth Over 10 Million Yen for Patent Infringement

In September, the developer of Palworld, Pocketpair, got hit by lawsuit filed by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo Co., Ltd. for patent infringement. Pocketpair has now revealed some interesting information, including the three patents that were infringed, about the lawsuit, including the amount of money that The Pokémon Company and Nintendo Co., Ltd. is seeking.

Not just money, but the lawsuit also demands an injunction against Palworld, preventing the sale of the game in Japan in the future. Pocketpair has confirmed that it will continue to assert its position in this case through future legal proceedings.

The Pokémon Company and Nintendo Co., Ltd Filed A Lawsuit Against Pocketpair

It’s no secret that Pocketpair’s Palworld shares similarities with the Pokemon franchise. Everyone knew that Nintendo will soon come knocking at Pocketpair’s door with a lawsuit and it finally happened in September. At the time, not much information was revealed but everything has been shared in a recent statement released by Pocketpair on its official website.

Pocketpair has confirmed that it was accused of infringing on three of their patents: patent numbers 7545191, 7493117, and 7528390, all filed in Japan between May and July 2024. To sum things up, the first patent about aiming and firing some sort of item toward a character “in a field.” The second patent is about being able to capture creatures in the wild and finally, the third patent is about riding creatures in an open world.

The Pokémon Company and Nintendo Co., Ltd Is Seeking 10 Million Yen From Pocketpair

Pocketpair has also confirmed that The Pokémon Company and Nintendo Co., Ltd is demanding 10 million yen (5 million yen for The Pokémon Company and 5 million yen for Nintendo Co., Ltd) plus late payment damages from them, which is not a lot considering the amount of money video game publishers seek nowadays.

The demand is 10 million yen, which is about $66,000, an amount of money that Pocketpair will easily be able to pay given how successful the early access release of Palworld was. The concerning demand is the injunction against Palworld as it will affect the game’s sales.

Palworld was released on January 19, 2024, through Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview, and is expected to remain in early access until at least 2025. A PlayStation 5 version was also released in September 2024.

The open-world in Palworld is full of animal-like creatures called Pals, which players can battle and capture to use for base building, traversal, and combat. The concept was so similar to the Pokemon franchise that players labeled Palworld as “Pokémon with guns.“

Do you think the lawsuit was justified? Share your opinions in the comments!