Nintendo and The Pokémon Company's surprising move to take legal action against Palworld appears to be over a patent related to how players throw Pokéballs.
Yesterday, Nintendo confirmed that it was suing Palworld maker Pocketpair for infringing “multiple” patents, but did not specify which ones. Later in the day, Pocketpair itself said it had yet to learn which patents it was accused of infringing.
Now, the finger is being pointed at a recent patent for the launch of Pokéballs filed jointly this summer by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. In fact, the companies have requested that this patent be subjected to an expedited review process, perhaps in preparation for this lawsuit.
The details come from Japanese patent attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara, who provided a statement to Yahoo Japan and translated them into Italian.
The patent in question describes how a character captures a Pokémon by aiming and throwing a capture object, such as a Pokéball, at a creature. After a successful capture, the creature becomes “owned by the player.”
In Palworld, players capture Pals by aiming and throwing a capture object, called a Pal Sphere, at a creature. After capture, the creature becomes the player's property.
“[It’s a] “a killer patent,” Kurihara said. “It seems like it would be difficult to avoid if you wanted to make a game like Pokémon, and it’s easy to infringe if you’re not careful.”
Although filed this summer, Kurihara pointed out that this patent was filed over a pre-existing “parent” patent filed by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company in December 2021, before Palworld's launch. This means it could actually be used in a patent battle with Palworld now.
Palworld has been dogged by suggestions that it copied Pokémon since its launch, although many of the comparisons between the two franchises have focused on the similarity of many of the monster designs. This, something more likely to be covered by a copyright complaint, does not appear to be Nintendo's tactic in this case.
While interest in Palworld has waned since its stratospheric launch, when 25 million players tried the game, Nintendo will likely be watching closely for future developments. A PlayStation version of Palworld looks set to launch at some point, and Sony has invested in Pocketpair to help create Palworld Entertainment, a division designed to expand the brand beyond video games.
Eurogamer has reached out to Nintendo for more details, while Pocketpair awaits the full details of the allegations made against it.
“[Pocketpair’s] “This filing implies that the final complaint (which should list the patents allegedly infringed) has not yet been delivered/filed,” video game legal expert Richard Hoeg told Eurogamer. “The first thing the defendant learns in any jurisdiction is what they are alleged to have done. So they may have received notice that they are a named party, but not the complaint itself.”
For its part, Pocketpair has said it is fighting the lawsuit to combat what it perceives as an attack on its creativity by other independent developers. There is also concern among Palworld fans that the lawsuit could lead to the game being removed from sale, either in Japan or globally.
“The reach of Japanese patent law ends at the borders of Japan,” said Lisa Phillips, an intellectual property and patent attorney at Fisch Sigler LLP in Washington, D.C. “That means there will be no immediate impact of a decision in that court on Palworld’s U.S. operations. Of course, Nintendo, which has substantial intellectual property rights in the U.S., could also sue Palworld here.”