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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

As announced on September 19, 2024, The Pokémon Company and Nintendo Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "Plaintiffs") have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against us. We have received inquiries from various media outlets regarding the status of the lawsuit, and we would like to report the details and current status of this case as follows:

1: Details of the Lawsuit

The Plaintiffs claim that "Palworld," released by us on January 19, 2024, infringes upon the following three patents held by the Plaintiffs, and are seeking an injunction against the game and compensation for a portion of the damages incurred between the date of registration of the patents and the date of filing of this lawsuit.

2: Target Patents

Patent No. 7545191
[Patent application date: July 30, 2024]
[Patent registration date: August 27, 2024]

Patent No. 7493117
[Patent application date: February 26, 2024]
[Patent registration date: May 22, 2024]

Patent No. 7528390
[Patent application date: March 5, 2024]
[Patent registration date: July 26, 2024]

3: Summary of the Claim

An injunction against Palworld
Payment of 5 million yen plus late payment damages to The Pokémon Company
Payment of 5 million yen plus late payment damages to Nintendo Co., Ltd.

We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings.

Please note that we will refrain from responding individually to inquiries regarding this case. If any matters arise that require public notice, we will announce them on our website, etc.

500 | 株式会社ポケットペア

www.pocketpair.jp

 

[adamsapple]

Palworld developer Pocketpair announce that Nintendo and the The Pokémon Company are demanding 10 million yen (about $66,000 USD) plus late payment damages in their lawsuit against Palword.

10 million yen sounds very small on paper, considering the huge success the game has been.

Interested in seeing what those late payment damages are though.

 

[NeoLed]

Most of those patent were registered after the game release. How these patent laws actually work...??

 

[begotten]

Lol is that it?

 

[CoreyFlawless]

Wait? They just made them patent this year?? Hell nah. Shit better not pass.

 

[zapper]

I don't understand the point, basically they're just aiming to block the spread of palworld which stopped by itself months ago... in the end this lawsuit will be more positive for palworld and pocket pair than for pokemon and nintendo/tpc

 

[delishcaek]

Lol is that it?

They want an injunction against the game which is directly over the 5m Yen demands, don't understand why the Tweet isn't focused on that injunction. They really don't care about the damages.

An injunction would only be for the Japanese market, though. If Nintendo succeeds here they may try it in the EU and US next.

 

[Holammer]

Here's a good video talking about the subject. From a lawyer's perspective and it's pretty meaty, the guy spends a lot of time giving context.
Rough TLDR: He believes Nintendo would have let it pass, but Sony's involvement with Pocketpair turned the issue into corporate warfare.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

this makes me belive that if another company makes a hybrid console, Nintendo will sue them.

 

[Hookshot]

this makes me belive that if another company makes a hybrid console, Nintendo will sue them.

Nah, they held off revealing the Switch because they said others would likely copy it. Doesn't sound like they can stop Sony or MS making one.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Nah, they held off revealing the Switch because they said others would likely copy it. Doesn't sound like they can stop Sony or MS making one.

well yeah. cuz they can't bully them.

 

[RoboFu]

this makes me belive that if another company makes a hybrid console, Nintendo will sue them.

 

[tkscz]

They want an injunction against the game which is directly over the 5m Yen demands, don't understand why the Tweet isn't focused on that injunction. They really don't care about the damages.

An injunction would only be for the Japanese market, though. If Nintendo succeeds here they may try it in the EU and US next.

Most people won't know what an injunction is. Basically Nintendo is trying to get it to where Pocket pair can no longer work on Palworld at all.

Though I don't know how well that will spread. Looking into even the basics, Japan's patent laws are different from US laws.

 

[ReyBrujo]

10 million yen sounds very small on paper, considering the huge success the game has been.

Damages and license fees is where the meat is.

 

[GHG]

This needs to be fought by pocketpair, purely out of principle.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

how much is this shit, like 800USD or so? how many units have they sold?

Nintendo waited to see how successful Palword become to do their bullshit

 

[Saber]

Making patents this year...doesn't sounds like protecting their properties to me. Hopefully the guys in charge notice this patern.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Not a console (gladly) and not hybrid.

 

[Mr Moose]

Fucking patent trolls.

 

[HogIsland]

if the ball was replaced with a net, it shouldn't make a lick of difference to the patent (ball vs net is really a copyright question). if nintendo is arguing that you can't make a game capturing critters with a net, hopefully it is obvious that that is insane and a frivolous limitation on general innovation.

Opinion - [Gamerant] Nintendo's Lawsuit May Not Have Far-Reaching Consequences For Palworld

Ive provided the Galaxy AI "detailed summary" of the article below, but I'd recommend reading the article itself, this is surprisingly written decently. Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld developer unlikely to cause significant damage beyond Japan • Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against...

www.neogaf.com

This kind of patent cannot be allowed to win. You may as well patent "character loses health when struck by weapon"

 

[chokotoureiki]

10 million yen sounds very small on paper, considering the huge success the game has been.

Interested in seeing what those late payment damages are though.

They're saving up for a PS5 Pro.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Here's a good video talking about the subject. From a lawyer's perspective and it's pretty meaty, the guy spends a lot of time giving context.
Rough TLDR: He believes Nintendo would have let it pass, but Sony's involvement with Pocketpair turned the issue into corporate warfare.

Was coming here to post this exact video.
Moonchannel is a great creator, who’s leveled headed and sticks to the facts.

 

[NeverYouMind]

May Nintendo get fucked royally.

 

[Shubh_C63]

Rough TLDR: He believes Nintendo would have let it pass, but Sony's involvement with Pocketpair turned the issue into corporate warfare.

This what I thought also.
Nintendo would have sued in a heartbeat if they had something tangible but Sony pairing made them dug deep.

 

[Utamaru1706]

lol, this is very likely the result of Mihoyo's Genshin doings on Breath of the Wild several years ago, because Nintendo can't persecute Hoyo for "copying" some of BotW's game mechanics back then, since they haven't patented any of its gameplay elements yet, and Genshin itself becomes a huge hit + world phenomenon.

It's sad, but this is what Japanese corporation is all about, where they're very protective with their stuffs, especially gameplay elements, where we had stuffs like Bamco patenting the "mini-games during loading screen", or when Konami sued Uma Musume, because they're using the same mechanics from their Power Pro Baseball series...

 

[dreamstation]

Fuck off Nintendo. I hope they fight to the end and Nintendo has to fall on their sword in shame.

Picked the game up again recently on PS5 to play with my daughter. Has been a great time.

 

[Pop]

Nintendo going for that petty win

geez

 

[Loomy]

This might be the bullshittiest of all of Nintendo's bullshit litigations.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

$66k hahaha

 

[Physiognomonics]

lol, this is very likely the result of Mihoyo's Genshin doings on Breath of the Wild several years ago, because Nintendo can't persecute Hoyo for "copying" some of BotW's game mechanics back then, since they haven't patented any of its gameplay elements yet, and Genshin itself becomes a huge hit + world phenomenon.

It's sad, but this is what Japanese corporation is all about, where they're very protective with their stuffs, especially gameplay elements, where we had stuffs like Bamco patenting the "mini-games during loading screen", or when Konami sued Uma Musume, because they're using the same mechanics from their Power Pro Baseball series...

Genshin is from China. Nintendo can do nothing against them. China don't care about western copyrights laws or patents. But they could succeed against a japanese developer.

 

[Utamaru1706]

Genshin is from China. Nintendo can do nothing against them. China don't care about western copyrights laws or patents. But they could succeed against a japanese developer.

Well not really, since there are times where western companies managed to won against Chinese companies that infringed their stuffs, like Riot Games for example, where this company somehow always have problem with Chinese game companies that loves to copy their games, to the point that Riot sends lawsuits against them, in which they won some of the cases.

Besides, The Pokemon Company recently also won their copyright infringement lawsuit against multiple Chinese companies that released fake Pokemon games, in which Nintendo is also a part of TPC.

So yeah, copyright lawsuits is getting better results for non-Chinese companies in China during recent years, but it's still a massive money and time sink for those companies, in which they only move when it's really worth the effort.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

lol, this is very likely the result of Mihoyo's Genshin doings on Breath of the Wild several years ago, because Nintendo can't persecute Hoyo for "copying" some of BotW's game mechanics back then, since they haven't patented any of its gameplay elements yet, and Genshin itself becomes a huge hit + world phenomenon.

It's sad, but this is what Japanese corporation is all about, where they're very protective with their stuffs, especially gameplay elements, where we had stuffs like Bamco patenting the "mini-games during loading screen", or when Konami sued Uma Musume, because they're using the same mechanics from their Power Pro Baseball series...

The funny thing about the BOTW - Genshin fake controversy is that there isn't a single original mechanic in BOTW —they couldn't patent shit even if they wanted— while Genshin introduced a whole gacha game loop that has become a new standard in the industry, same as Ubisoft became the open world standard that BOTW borrows from so heavily and nobody pointed fingers at Nintendo for that.

 

[March Climber]

 

[Tertullian]

… $66,000? They're mugging Pocketpair for lunch money to score some esoteric legal point?