In 2024, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company sued Palworld developer Pocketpair on patent infringement claims, and now Palworld’s community manager has revealed more details on how it all went down.
Appearing at GDC 2025 this week, community manager John Buckley said Pocketpair did “legal checks” prior to Palworld’s release to try to mitigate a lawsuit risk in Japan, PC Gamer reported. Given that, Buckley said the team was confused when Nintendo and The Pokemon Company sued Pocketpair in Japan.
When the news of the lawsuit broke out, our initial reaction was one of surprise. We consulted our legal team who then reached out to the court to inquire about the situation. It was only then that we understood they were targeting patents. (Buckley)
He added that it was a “very depressing day” for Pocketpair when it got sued, adding that developers at Pocketpair are big fans of the Pokemon series.
The announcement significantly impacted our plans. We were on the verge of launching the PlayStation version, and we were about to attend the Tokyo Game Show. As a result, we needed to make some adjustments, such as hiring security personnel and making other necessary preparations.
Pocketpair posted a summery of the information, which reveals that the three Japanese patents in question for the lawsuit are No. 7545191, No. 7493117, and No. 7528390. Instead of going after Palworld for its Pokemon-like creatures, the patents appear to be centered on the mechanics of throwing a ball at characters, riding characters in the game, and shooting at targets.
Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are seeking an injunction against Pocketpair and Palworld, as well as a payment of 5 million yen (which is roughly just under $33,000 USD).
Analyst Serkan Toto said Nintendo is going after Pocketpair and Palworld because Pocketpair was “copying what they are doing.” Toto also noted that Nintendo was trying to “spit in their bowl” by suing Pocketpair just before Palworld came to PS5.
Toto stated, “Nintendo doesn’t view such matters from an idealistic perspective at all. Instead, it operates purely as a hard-nosed business.
Palworld continues to grow, as Pocketpair has just recently announced that cross-play is coming at the end of March 2025.
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2025-03-18 20:27