Palworld’s launch sparked a debate across different social media platforms, especially from Pokémon fans who claimed the game stole character models from Nintendo’s favorite game. Days later, The Pokémon Company said it would investigate.
On September 19, 2024, The Pokémon Company announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair for multiple patent infringements. Palworld has now released a statement titled, “Regarding the Lawsuit”.
“Yesterday, a lawsuit was filed against our company for patent infringement,” Pocketpair wrote on the company’s official website. “We have received notice of this lawsuit and will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement.”
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Pocketpair claimed that at the moment it is still not aware of the exact The Pokémon Company’s patent that Palworld infringed on. The Palworld maker also said they had not been notified of the details.
“Pocketpair is a small indie game company based in Tokyo. Our goal as a company has always been to create fun games. We will continue to pursue this goal because we know that our games bring joy to millions of gamers around the world.
“Palworld was a surprise success this year, both for gamers and for us. We were blown away by the amazing response to the game and have been working hard to make it even better for our fans. We will continue improving Palworld and strive to create a game that our fans can be proud of.
“It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.”
Pocketpair apologized to their fans for any worries that the lawsuit announcement might have caused. Finally, they thanked their fans for the continued support they have given Palworld.
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Following the success of Palworld, Pocketpair announced in July that it has established a joint venture company called Palworld Entertainment Inc., in collaboration with Sony Music Entertainment Inc. and Aniplex Inc. “to promote the licensing business of Palworld, both domestically and internationally”.
How the outcome of the Nintendo lawsuit will affect Pocketpair
Even before Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, many already anticipated that the lawsuit would come at some point. However, the debate has been on how The Pokémon Company will frame the content of the lawsuit.
Many suggested that The Pokémon Company will try to prove that Pocketpair infringed on its intellectual property through the unauthorized use of its character model—which many analysts pointed out the similarities.
However, the statement from Pocketpair shows that Nintendo and The Pokémon Company went even deeper by filing a lawsuit accusing Pocketpair of infringing on its patent.
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Should The Pokémon Company win the lawsuit, Pocketpair will either be ordered to shut down Palworld or pay for damages, or both. Also, the fate of Palworld Entertainment Inc. would be in doubt.
In the announcement that it has filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, The Pokémon Company said, “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.”
Nintendo has shut down several projects this year through lawsuits or Cease & Desist orders. One of the most prominent was the shuttering of Yuzu Emulator which allowed gamers to play Switch games on PC.
Do you think The Pokemon Company will win the lawsuit against Pocketpair? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
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