Palworld developer Pocketpair has revealed the patents at the center of the infringement lawsuit Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed in Japan back in September. Pocketpair has also shared that, in addition to 5 million yen each plus late fees, they’re “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.
The Pokémon Company cites three Japanese patents, No. 7545191, No. 7493117, and No. 7528390. From the translation of the claims, they appear to describe Pokémon-style activities, with ‘191 focused on the act of throwing a ball at characters in a field, ‘117 tied to aiming, and ‘390 on riding characters. We’ll have to dig more deeply into the original Japanese patent language and Japanese patent law to understand how strong these patents might be in the lawsuit, however.
Image: Patent JP7493117B2 (Nintendo, Pokemon Company)
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s lawsuit landed nine months after Palworld’s launch broke Steam records and racked up an impressive 12 million copies sold within its first month.
Shortly after the launch, Nintendo released a statement saying that it was aware of Palworld and would be investigating claims that the game ripped off Pokémon designs and other elements of Nintendo’s monster-catching game. The suit has led to the delay of Palworld’s Japanese PS5 launch but hasn’t stopped the development of a mobile port of the game licensed by PUBG Mobile publisher Krafton. To close the announcement, Pocketpair said, “We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings.”
