The Pokemon Company and Nintendo are suing Palworld developer Pocketpair for patent infringement, the companies announced.
Filed in Tokyo District Court on Wednesday, the two companies are seeking 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.”
The lawsuit comes nearly eight months to the day since Palworld was first released.
“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,” the joint statement said.
Nintendo Suing Palworld Isn’t Surprising
The idea of a lawsuit by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company against Palworld has been a topic of discussion since the game dubbed “Pokemon with Guns” was first released. For months, there was no formal complaint by Nintendo — one of the more litigious game companies — against Palworld. That said, just two weeks after Palworld’s launch, Nintendo’s president said the company would “take appropriate action against those that infringe our intellectual property (IP) rights.”
It appears that the time for action from the company is now. No specific examples of patent infringement have been made public. Should this lawsuit move forward, information regarding the similarities between Pokemon and Palworld is sure to come.
Insider Gaming has reached out to Pocketpair for comment. Should a response be received, it will be added to this article.
Released in January 2024, Palworld rose to prominence immediately. Within weeks the game sold more than 25 million copies, and even became the second-highest-played game in Steam history before it was knocked to third by Black Myth: Wukong.
What do you think of Nintendo and The Pokemon Company suing Pocketpair for patent infringement with Palworld? Let us know in the comments, and join the discussion in the official Insider Gaming Forums.
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Pocket Pair should team up with the creator of Toriko they could make something way better than modern Pokémon. Eiichiro Oda is another good name to team with for fictional animals in a fantasy world.