LogInConsidering Nintendo's history, the lawsuit itself is not the most surprising part.
Proving the predictions made in early 2024 by numerous video game enthusiasts to be correct, gaming giant Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developer of the action-adventure survival game Palworld, citing alleged patent infringement.
"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," reads Nintendo's original statement. "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."
Ever since Palworld's release in late January, many have accused the game of infringing on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon franchise. Although the similarities between the two were clear, neither the community nor Nintendo initially found concrete evidence of any wrongdoing, despite Nintendo launching an investigation shortly after the game's release.
In June, Pocketpair's Takuro Mizobe addressed the issue once again, mentioning that the team hadn't been contacted by Nintendo's lawyers, thus leading many to believe that if even Nintendo couldn't find anything to sue over, there was no infringement – as long as drawing inspiration or creating monster-taming games wasn't illegal.
However, it seems those assumptions were wrong, and Nintendo has now found grounds to sue the company, which isn't at all surprising given Nintendo's fiery passion for sending lawsuits left and right, a tactic many view as overly aggressive or even predatory. What is surprising, though, is that it took Nintendo eight entire months to file its first lawsuit against Pocketpair, raising questions about what exactly the gaming giant discovered in Palworld to take legal action.
As of now, Pocketpair has not officially commented on the situation. Shortly after the news broke, the team's Global Community Manager, Bucky, tweeted a single smiling emoji, indicating that Pocketpair is aware of the lawsuit, but the tweet itself has since been deleted.
So, what's your take on the situation? Does Palworld actually infringe on Pokémon's patent rights, or is it a David vs Goliath-esque attempt to bully a smaller developer who most likely doesn't have enough resources to fight a legal battle with Nintendo? Tell us in the comments!
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