On September 18, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against a game similar to its popular Pokemon game franchise in some mechanics. Nintendo sued the game Palworld’s creator, Pocket Pair Inc., saying that Palworld infringes on multiple patents. The lawsuit over multiple patents claims infringement of specific gameplay mechanics in Palworld.
Nintendo is suing over three new patents they have filed, with two being the main involvement in the lawsuit. One patent refers to the general idea of capturing an NPC or a creature, and display the player’s chance of success, and the change from the creature being an enemy to being “owned” by the player. The other patent involves the idea of actively switching between different modes of travel across various terrains for the player to use. These are the main two features Nintendo believes Palworld has lifted from its Pokemon games.
One major factor in this case is when the patents were filed. One was filed on July 30 of this year, then on August 6 Nintendo requested an accelerated examination, getting approved on August 22. The other three patents were filed in February and early March, with all receiving approval by July. Noting Palworld’s early access release was January 19, but Nintendo had originally filed for similar but less specific patents in December of 2021, meaning all of the newly filed patents can use this date as the original filing date in the lawsuit. These newer patents are meant to build upon the original “catch and redeploy mechanic” patent, changing wording to be more specific, to filling in what wasn’t there before.
While it seems like Nintendo filed the lawsuit to maintain control over it patents and mechanics, the timing calls into question the real motives of the gaming giant. Pocket Pair has a previous game, Craftopia, that uses the same game mechanic as Palworld, but Nintendo has done nothing about it involving patent infringement. But why Palworld? Nintendo brought this lawsuit after the success of Palworld, which gained a major fanbase off of its unique take on a catch and redeploy game, incorporating mechanics like resources, building, crafting, and using captured NPCs to help with these tasks. Even with these many differences, Nintendo sees this as patent infringement.
Many gamers see this as an attempt from Nintendo to control their competition and stay on top, with them suing PoketPair over Palworld, but not Craftopia, when both use the catch and release mechanic. As BBCHS senior and Palworld fan El Moore said, “They’re only really doing this because they’re scared Palworld will become … more popular than Pokemon.”
It seems to many like Nintendo suing Pocket Pair could be that they see them as competition and are attempting to use lawsuits to stay on top.
