When
Palworld
released
six
months
ago
and
become
a
shockingly
massive
hit,
we
all
waited
with
bated
breath
to
see
if
Nintendo
would
unleash
their
law
hounds
on
the.
After
all,
Palworld
is
heavily
inspired
by
Pokemon,
although
it’s
also
very
different
in
terms
of
how
it
plays.
Nintendo
is
often
viewed
as
one
of
the
most
litigious
companies
in
the
gaming
space.
And
yet,
surprisingly,
while
Nintendo
did
publicly
state
they
were
investing
Palworld,
nothing
came
of
it.
Until
now.
Nintendo
of
America
is
now
officially
suing
Pocketpair,
the
developer
of
Palworld,
for
what
it
describes
as
infringement
of
“multiple
patent
rights.”
This
is
surprising
as
most
people
had
assumed
any
legal
action
would
be
based
upon
copyright
violations.
Advertisements
In
a
very
brief
statement,
Nintendo
says:
“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.
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
does
not
elaborate
on
exactly
what
patents
Palworld
has
allegedly
infringed
upon.
Pocketpair
has
responded
publicly
to
the
accusations,
even
going
so
far
as
to
pitch
the
upcoming
battle
as
being
to
“ensure
that
indie
game
developers
are
not
hindered
or
discouraged
from
pursuing
their
creative
ideas.”
“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.”
reads
the
official
statement.
“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.”
The
legal
battle
should
be
an
interesting
one,
even
to
a
layman
such
as
myself.
Despite
being
jokingly
described
as
being
Pokemon
with
guns,
Palworld
doesn’t
actually
play
anything
like
the
Pokemon
titles
outside
of
capturing
creatures
with
a
ball.
However,
quite
a
few
of
the
creature
designs
in
Palworld
were
accused
of
being
copies
of
existing
Pokemon
with
a
few
modifications.
I
think
the
case
may
be
built
around
claiming
Pocketpair
infringing
upon
is
the
act
of
throwing
a
ball
to
capture
a
creature,
which
Nintendo
actually
owns
a
patent
to.
Just
for
fun,
here’s
Nintendo’s
patent
for
the
act
of
tossing
a
Pokeball.
Have
fun
trying
to
understand
it,
as
it’s
incredibly
vague.
“In
a
first
mode,
an
aiming
direction
in
a
virtual
space
is
determined
based
on
a
second
operation
input,
and
a
player
character
is
caused
to
launch,
in
the
aiming
direction,
an
item
that
affects
a
field
character
disposed
on
a
field
in
the
virtual
space,
based
on
a
third
operation
input.
In
a
second
mode,
the
aiming
direction
is
determined,
based
on
the
second
operation
input,
and
the
player
character
is
caused
to
launch,
in
the
aiming
direction,
a
fighting
character
that
fights,
based
on
the
third
operation
input.”
Other
games
that
have
used
some
form
of
creature
capture
and/or
summoning
have
been
very
careful
to
avoid
using
a
ball
or
anything
like
that
so
as
not
to
draw
the
wrath
of
Nintendo.
Pocketpair
has
raked
in
a
lot
of
cash
from
the
massive
success
of
Palworld,
but
compared
to
Nintendo
it’s
small
fries
and
even
if
Nintendo
doesn’t
win
the
war,
the
battle
could
devastate
Pocketpair.
The
best-case
scenario
for
Pocketpair
could
be
to
try
to
settle
the
case,
but
if
Nintendo
thinks
they
have
a
strong
argument
they
may
seek
to
crush
Pocketpair
entirely
to
send
a
message.
After
all,
we
know
Nintendo
can
be
ruthless
when
pursuing
legal
action.
