Nintendo, The Pokémon Company sue Palworld developer for patent infringements

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a case against Japanese developer Pocketpair, which made the monster-taming game Palworld, for patent infringement.

In a statement published on their website, Nintendo along with The Pokémon Company said it filed the lawsuit on Sept. 18 in the Tokyo District Court, about eight months since Palworld was launched through early access in January.

"The lawsuit seeks an injunction against the defendants and compensation for damages, alleging that the game 'Palworld' developed and sold by the defendants infringes multiple patents," the statement read.

"In order to protect the valuable intellectual property that we have built up through many years of hard work, we will continue to take the necessary measures against any infringement of our intellectual property, including our brand," it added.

The Pokémon Company was previously made aware of Palworld, which has been nicknamed as "Pokémon with guns," back in January after several social media users pointed out similarities between the designs of the creatures in their respective games.

since I'm bored as hell, I'm gonna be making a thread of this i think... Palworld design analysis trying to spot every pokemon they jumbled together pic.twitter.com/Ch9jcx5hCI

— onion_mu (@onion_mu) January 18, 2024

Although Pokémon didn’t explicitly mention any title at the time, they stated that they "received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024."

"We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game. We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon," they underscored.

Palworld is an open world game populated with animal-like creatures called "Pals," which players capture and battle with as they build their bases, weapons, structures, and decorations.

The game captured the attention of players for its mechanic of using firearms and equipping Pals with them, as well as using them for food or as manual labor in mines and factories.

Despite the "Pokémon rip-off" claims, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe said in a blog post that Palworld’s 100 character concepts were made mostly by a single graduate student.

In a separate statement on X, Mizobe urged the public to "refrain from slandering the artists involved with Palworld."

"Our artists are currently receiving slanderous comments, and there are also tweets that border on death threats. We have received a variety of opinions about Palworld, but all Palworld production is supervised by multiple people, including myself, and I am responsible for the production," he said.

Pocketpair has yet to respond to the lawsuit.