Note that it's for patents and not copyright (i.e. character likenesses), as many predicted.
It'll be interesting to see which patents Nintendo is trying to assert. Given that Palworld is purely a game, it seems likely to be Nintendo's patents related to game mechanics (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37062820), which I think most people here are justifiably against.
Palworld is what happens when Pokemon fans get fed up with the swill that Pokemon puts out every few years.
While the primary goal of the game is to get all of the pals, most of your time is spent putting your pals to work building up your base, breeding better pals, and manufacturing the weapons needed in order to get even better pals. This is a stark contrast to Pokemon games, where you just walk around challenging gym leaders. It's an entirely different game.
So if Pocketpair reskinned a few assets sure, pay Nintendo 5% at most. But those skins had nothing to do with the success of the game and Nintendo doesn't deserve anything more than that.
For anybody who's wondering, Nintendo doesn't _actually_ own Pokemon (a common misconception), but has a major stake in "The Pokemon Company", which does https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo#Subsidiaries
As such, I wonder if this structure makes it harder to sue over IP infringement. I agree with others here that patent infringement is a seemingly odd pick, but perhaps this also has to do with character design patents, since Palworld didn't explicitly use Nintendo's IP?
Should be interesting regardless to see what happens
I never played any Pokemon, I always thought it was lame, but I absolutely love Palworld. I run my own server and we still play with others, so this makes me sad.
I stopped buying Nintendo things years ago when they began going after emulators, rom sites, and others actively archiving and distributing these means. I don't support litigious companies and the vermin lawyers.
For those unaware, Pocketpair made the game Palworld, which has "pals" that look like Pokemon.
This being a patent suit is very bizarre. Everyone was expecting a copyright lawsuit, if anything. I'm not a big fan of software patents, and it seems like they're only exercised as a convenient bludgeon against a rival, not based on something a company feels it legitimately invented.
Nintendo took so long to do this that I kind of assumed they didn’t actually care. The pal is kind of out of the ball at this point.
This is likely one of the infringed patents: https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/c1801/PU/JP-2023-092953/11...
It's the catching mechanic, detailed specifically (I believe it was filed because of the Legend of Arceus game).
"They have spent the last few years doing nothing but suing fans so they won’t be prepared to face lawyers that are completely identical to them but are better because as I said before, they have guns.”
Beautiful. I'm rooting for these guys.
There can be no lawsuit here without upsetting the entire gaming industry. Sue star wars survivor series for being a blatant ripoff of sekiro but based in star wars - where do you draw the line? Games have copied mechanics for as long as there have been games.
I have no faith in the courts, however, and nintendo usually wins these stupid things.
The lawsuit was filed in a Japanese court. What if the company just stops offering the game in Japan? Unless the same patent also exists in other countries (which would require separate lawsuits in each jurisdiction that heavily depends on specific laws), whatever the outcome of this lawsuit won't matter elsewhere in the world, right?
Suing for software patents is... an interesting move.
Working with lawyers in my job they made it very clear software patents are a nightmare to enforce. I think Oracle v Google proves this pretty clearly.
Probably Nintendo is suing on the catching mechanic which is pretty much the same in both games. In Palworld, the player has a team of Pals and, in order to catch a new Pal, they must fight and after some damage throw a catching ball at the right moment. Could someone patent a monster catching mechanic, anyway?
On a related topic, there was a recent lawsuit from IBM against Zynga over some obvious patents (like showing ads along with content), but it seems that the news didn't appear on HN somehow?
Any Japanese folks who practice law in Japan able to comment on this? A bit tired of the armchair lawyers from the West on this one.
Pokémon company sues Palworld for making the pokemon game everyone always wanted without calling them pokemon
Merits of the case? What would the patent rights be, if anyone has looked
I played Palworld before, and honestly, my first thought was Pokémon.
just bought the game to contribute to PocketPairs defense fund, this is absurd
Does anyone have the actual filing?
What patents does Nintendo and TPC own related to pokemon, I don't see that in the press release.
The Assassination of Pocketpair, Inc by the Coward Nintendo Co., Ltd.
Reminder: This was filed in a Japanese court, so anything relating to the legal systems of other countries is irrelevant. The effects of the outcome of this case will be limited to Japan.
Nintendo's legal department feels it's led by a bunch of extremely spoiled and jealous children. This lawsuit is like the corporate equivalent of a child seeing what another kid made in art class and getting angry because it's better than what they made. Instead of learning from it and trying to create something even better themselves next time, they just trying to destroy what the other kid made so it doesn't make them look bad.
Also, apparently some of the relevant patents were filed by Nintendo after the release of Palworld, which makes it even worse. Unfortunately, since the lawsuit was filed in Japan and both companies are japanese, Nintendo will likely win by default.
Another desperate attempt by Nintendo to stifle creativity.
Gentle reminder that Nintendo was never good
No one saw this comming
Do they have the case though? I thought the game mechanics by themselves were not copyrightable, only specific text/art/etc.
Hello,
yesterday I've patented "*", yes asterisk aka everything you write, create, your thoughts everything.
So pay up! You must send me $100 for every word here!
For those wondering, here is a video that compares Pokemon with Palworld characters, there are a ton that are rip offs, and all together it is a pretty clear rip off:
In response, Pocketpair has hired lawyers identical to Nintendo's, except with guns.
https://hard-drive.net/hd/video-games/pocketpair-hires-ident...