The Pokémon Company and Nintendo have jointly filed a lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair, months after a statement issued by Pokémon earlier in the year indicated that it has started investigations on copyright infringement claims.

Pokémon and Nintendo Sue Palworld for Infringement

Palworld May End If Claims are Founded

Following a statement made earlier in the year, The Pokémon Company and Nintendo announced that they have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld makers Pocketpair. In a press release shared today on Nintendo's website, the company stated that the lawsuit "seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages" as Palworld "infringes multiple patent rights."

Nintendo signed off saying that it 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." The aforementioned lawsuit was filed yesterday September 18 by Nintendo, together with The Pokémon Company, in the Tokyo District Court, and names Palworld developer Pocketpair as the Defendant in said case.

If an injunction becomes granted by the Court, this could result in Pocketpair ceasing operations on Palworld, and potentially mean that the game will be ultimately taken down. In other cases where an infringement is established, it could mean that Pocketpair shall be compelled to stop selling its game, Palworld. Apart from this, an injunction could also encompass other specified actions that are enforced upon the Defendant.

Currently, Palworld is an early access game that continues to enjoy a supportive worldwide fanbase. Pocketpair released Palworld earlier this year and immediately turned heads, being dubbed as the "Pokémon with guns" game and garnering over 19 million players across Steam and Xbox in just less than two weeks of its release on January 19.

Palworld became embroiled in a number of controversies amid its success. One such instance would be its alleged use of AI and plagiarism of Pokémon characters. The controversy led to accusations of Palworld blatantly copying Pokémon developer Game Freak's designs. However, despite the allegations and public discussion, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe has not directly addressed such claims.

Consequently, The Pokémon Company issued a statement during the latter parts of January, indicating its investigation on Palworld, and any acts that infringe on Pokémon IP, for that matter. In its statement, Pokémon clarified that they did not grant any permission for the use of Pokémon IP or assets in a particular game—which was left unspecified but widely believed to allude to Palworld. The Pokemon Company stated that it remains committed to investigating the matter and taking appropriate measures to address any infringement on the company's IP rights.

Palworld Comments on Patent Infringement Lawsuit

Addressing the case lodged against them, Pocketpair gave out a statement confirming that it has received the notice of lawsuit for patent infringement. However, the Palworld developer mentioned that they are currently unaware of the infringed patents being referred to by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.

"We have received notice of this lawsuit and will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement," Pocketpair's statement read. "At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details."

Pocketpair took the time to express gratitude to its player base and the studio's commitment to creating games that "bring joy to millions of gamers around the world." The studio sounded determined in resolving the case in their favor, wherein Palworld remain intact and available to play. "It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit," Pocketpair continued. "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."

Players have expressed their support for Palworld, with some commenting that Nintendo is "more evil and does more harm to gaming" in their pursuit of protecting their works. Meanwhile, another player is of the opinion that "Nintendo really needs to be humbled, and competition is healthy for everyone involved." Players on social media have seen the issue as one that could be grounds of an anti-trust lawsuit, as Nintendo has been perceived as unfairly crushing and encroaching on healthy market compeition. Meanwhile, there are others that believe Nintendo will not sue if they are not "100% winning."

What could Palworld have infringed?

Considering the case is lodged in Japan, the proceedings and claims presumably fall under the country's Patent Law under the System of Industrial Property Rights. Generally, the Patent Law protects intellectual creations such as "inventions." These include, as defined by the Japan Patent Office government agency:

　⚫︎　products or methods characterized by a high level of a creative technological idea;
　⚫︎　items characterized by a longer life cycle than a new utility model;
　⚫︎　hardware and related computer programs, items including plants, animals, and microorganisms

In this case, the "patents" in dispute could encompass certain features or mechanics found in Palworld which may bear similarities—and if proven, infringing—on Nintendo's or Pokémon's registered patents. An unearthed patent that could potentially be part of Nintendo and The Pokémon Company's case is one that provides "game program-storing medium, game system, game apparatus, and game processing method that are capable of allowing a player character to perform a variety of actions on a field in a virtual space."

These inventions, patented by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company dating back to 2021, titled "Storage medium storing game program, game apparatus, game system, and game processing method" encompass computer processes that define character movements in a game, among other claims. One such claim in the patent may refer to the character movement of capturing in-game creatures ('mons or Pals, take your pick). The patent protects a mechanic, refered to in the patent as "game processing method," that uses a "designated object," along with a defined "path display object" indicating movement paths of aforementioned designated object, as well as its orientation in the virtual space.

Other claims that Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have in the patent include the game program that causes:
　⚫︎　the fighting character and the field character to fight against each other on the field, based on an operation input including at least an instruction to attack by the fighting character and an instruction to use an item, after start of the fight;
　⚫︎　performing successful-catch determination of whether or not the field character is successfully caught using the catching item, based on a state of the field character that is changed due to the fight;
　⚫︎　setting the field character in a player's possession.

As understood, these defined movements of throwing an in-game object, down to the player character's positions before and after such movements, are patented by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.

Pocketpair could, however, find some respite and rely on certain principles under Japan's IP Law for its counterclaim. Malgorzata Wegrzak from the University of Gdansk, in her annotations on "Intellectual Property Law in Japan. Contemporary trends and challenges," proposed that AI-generated works could be claimed as ineligible for copyright protection due to "lack of human author's intellectual creation." As mentioned in the annotation, a copyright-protected work under Japan's Copyright Act is defined as a "creation expressing human thoughts and emotions," therefore certain AI-generated creations, or parts of the game that may be categorized as such, could well fall outside of these legal parameters.

Source:
Nintendo: Filing Lawsuit for Infringement of Patent Rights
against Pocketpair, Inc.
Pocketpair: Regarding The Lawsuit
JPO: System of Industrial Property Rights
PatentScope: US20210370178 - Storage medium storing game program, game apparatus, game system, and game processing method

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Charlene Aguila

A huge enthusiast of interactive games, turn-based RPGs, and horror-survivals that let you fire a gun. Her love for gaming started with the Shin Megami Tensei franchise and Dino Crisis. Although she'd try any game there is in the world, she will always have the biggest room in her heart for titles..