Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have jointly slapped Palworld developer Pocketpair with a patent infringement lawsuit. What exactly does this mean? We spoke with a practicing lawyer to glean some insight on how it may not actually have much to do with Pokemon at all.
Eight months to the day of Palworld’s Early Access release, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed a lawsuit against the game’s developer, Pocketpair.
While reticent on details, a press release announcing the news indicated the companies had submitted a patent infringement lawsuit to the Tokyo District Court, seeking compensation for damages caused by Palworld’s alleged infringement of “multiple patent rights.”
Now Pocketpair has also officially responded to the lawsuit calling it “truly unfortunate” in a tweet and thanked players for the overwhelming response when the game was released.
What exactly does this mean in layman’s terms? We spoke with a practicing business lawyer who claimed it may not actually have all that much to do with Pokemon.
Legal expert explains the nature of the Palworld lawsuit
Dexerto touched base with practicing business attorney Richard Hoeg as soon as news broke. With almost two decades of experience working in the legal field, Hoeg is also deeply knowledgeable in the video game industry, frequently appearing on shows under the Last Stand Media umbrella.
From Hoeg’s educated perspective, this new lawsuit doesn’t inherently involve what many would assume. Given that Palworld initially came under fire for the strikingly similar designs of many of its Pals compared to Pokemon, you wouldn’t be off course thinking that’s what prompted legal action. However, that’s not quite the case.
First, we have to dissect the technicalities of the lawsuit itself. It’s crucial to understand Nintendo and The Pokemon Company aren’t explicitly suing over Pocketpair’s designs for various Pal’s in their game. At least from the information we have at the time of writing, that’s not the case.
Rather, the lawsuit is instead in relation to infringements of specific patents held by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company.
At the time of writing, the full lawsuit hasn’t been publicized anywhere. Dexerto contacted the Tokyo District Court but was unable to obtain a copy of the filing. We’ve since contacted all involved parties.
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For now, with just the press release to go off, Hoeg admitted it’s tricky to offer much insight “without knowing what patents they are claiming to have been infringed.”
That’s the crux of the matter. Once we know the specific patents Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are filing for, we’ll be able to clearly understand how they believe Palworld infringed on their property. There’s a degree of speculation until then.
“Importantly, it’s not a copyright claim,” Hoeg clarified. So the legal matter isn’t directly about “copies of Pokemon themselves, but rather some aspect of the game design that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company protected as a new invention (patented).”
An experienced gamer in his own right, Hoeg finds it difficult “to imagine what that could be from afar since Palworld is a survival crafter and Pokemon is a turn-based RPG.”
Probably going to need more specifics before I can comment more completely, but Palworld is such a different type of game from Pokémon, it’s hard to imagine what patents (*not* copyrights) might have been even plausibly infringed. Initial gut reaction is Nintendo may be reaching. https://t.co/3L2D5EZ7hh
— Richard Hoeg (@HoegLaw) September 18, 2024
Breaking down the exact terminology used in the press release, Hoeg outlined the differences between what’s here – patent infringement – and what’s not – copyright or trademark infringement.
“The art of a given Pokemon would generally not be subject to a patent, but instead to copyright and potentially trademark (if a Pokemon signifies the brand – think Pikachu).
“It’s possible a Japanese court could have granted a patent on some aspect of rendering them or animating them in a specific way but it would be unusual.”
So for now, it’s a waiting game as we look toward the full lawsuit being publicized. Only then will we see the specific game design patents the companies allege Pocketpair has infringed upon.