Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a lawsuit against the Palworld developer Pocketpair.
In an official statement on Nintendo’s website. it is mentioned how a “patent infringement lawsuit” was filed in the Tokyo District Court this week against Pocketpair. The lawsuit seeks an “injunction against infringement and compensation for damages” with Palworld accused of infringing “multiple patent rights”.
Nintendo signs off by saying it will continue to protect the intellectual properties it has “worked hard to establish over the years”. Here it is in full:
Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter), together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. (HQ: 2-10-2 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, “Defendant” hereafter) on September 18, 2024.
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.
Game File’s Stephen Totilo has also shared a response he received from a Nintendo representative about “why Nintendo is suing in September when the game came out in January”:
“We filed the lawsuit at this timing after careful investigation of the content that is the subject of this lawsuit. We will refrain from commenting on topics that relate to the content of the lawsuit.”
In a statement in January, The Pokémon Company said it would always take “appropriate measures” to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.
The open-world survival and crafting game Palworld launched earlier this year and proved to be a hit on PC and Xbox, with the title also being made available on Microsoft’s subscription service Game Pass. Since then, it has received major updates adding new locations and ‘Pals’.