Pokémon's Palworld Patent Lawsuit is Worse Than You Think

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company' lawsuit against Palworld creator Pocket Pair finally has some concrete details, and based on what Pocket Pair has shared online, things aren't looking good.

Turns out, as many people had predicted, Nintendo filed some patents after Palworld had already released and is suing Pocket Pair retroactively, which feels incredibly harsh.

Apologies if this video is a bit rough around the edges, I've been having a very busy week and this had to be thrown together at short notice while my kids were jumping around the house to Bluey music.

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[Malidictus]

Hold on, Nintendo patented "jumping on a monster to ride it"? Have they not heard of Monster Hunter before?

[timogul]

Just a note, Genshin Impact had "throw a ball in the open world to capture an animal" mechanics before Arceus did.

[ThePaalanBoy]

correction: the pokeball patent from 2024 is a refiled, divided, smaller part of a bigger patent from 2021
BUT Poketpair also have a game from 2020 which also used a throwable capture device

[TheFoxfiend]

You mentioned that it's a relatively low amount that they are charging Pocketpair for, and I suspect the reason is that they don't want Pocketpair to actually take this to court, but rather just settle up. I suspect that if they can get Pocketpair to just settle up then it effectively acts as Pocketpair admitting that Nintendo is right and it would set a precedent and legitimize the patents. But if Pocketpair can take it to court they have a fairly good standing in saying that Nintendo is wrong and effectively nullify those patents, and thus the floodgates would be open for people to make similar style games.

[notoriousyolkhound]

"Throwing an object at a creature in 3D space" COD has to get rid of grenades now, nintendo patented it

[Sleepyhead]

The concept of a human throwing a ball at a creature to capture it in an open world environment was actually in Pocketpair's relatively unknown previous title Craftopia 1.5 years before Legends: Arceus released. So in reality, Pocketpair had standing to sue the other way around.

But they're not petty like that and they know that's not the point of a patent.

[psoslash]

tell me you are afraid of competition without telling me you are afraid of competition

[circledude]

Dude. you failed to see that those 3 patents are filed AFTER palworld's release. And the Killer parent patent those 3 patents are updates to is filed by 2021 but the game mechanic was invented by Pocketpair for Craftopia released in 2020. the riding mechanic was also used by Pocketpair in craftopia

[ChamAramis]

Incredibly lame and will stifle innovation on a genre that desperately needs it. If Pocket Pair crowd-funded this I'd immediately support them.

[Neil.]

That lawsuit is so malicious and greedy.

All because Nintendo is upset that someone made a more interesting, different version of something they haven't changed in decades.

[vianabdullah]

Sony needs to back up Pocket Pair in this scenario. I really don't understand why Nintendo is doing this now, there are dozens of monster catching games on the Switch like Monster Hunter Stories and Dragon Quest Monster already,

[Flaretale]

It's crazy to think that Temtem Came before Palworld, and Nintendo was OK with it being on the Switch. Not to mention, they're STILL safe from this patent because while you can still MOUNT yourself on your Tems, you can only throw Temcards in battle. And I think that's hilarious. Thanks for this. I needed this while I'm here being sick.

[TayoEXE]

What's wild to me is that most here in Japan have the opposite opinion on the situation in that they believe Pocket Pair is stealing, but most seem to be convinced the lawsuit is over copyright, when it's not.

[mistressminerva]

As far as i can see it, this is mainly Nintendo retaliating against Sony. Nintendo could have filed the lawsuit any time in the last half a year, but they only did after Sony and Pocketpair announced their Partnership. So i think this is a Pokemon Company vs Palworld Company thing, and Patent rights are a pain to deal with, if Nintendo could have protected their TradeMark and ideas / concepts by filing a Copy Right Lawsuit they would have done so. Cuz nobody wants to deal with Patent Rights. That said i bet this Lawsuit was only made to setup a clear line that the other company is not allowed to cross.
If this actually has a major impact on the already existing Palworld, which had its Public outing before the Patents got secured by Nintendo, is yet to be seen.
Because as far as im aware, you cant retroactively do that in court .
But yeah it absolutely means that as long as Nintendo holds the Patents, there cant be a Palworld 2 or whatever in the future with the same patented mechanics.

[SuperKiobi]

If only game freak put as much effort making games as they did suing people

[Srootus]

so... if a make an open world game where i can ride around on horseback, I'm infringing a approved patent owned by Nintendo????!

[ライロス]

When I see companies sue other companies over a patent that they cant do the same idea feels petty to me. I prefer if both companies came togather and innovate and share ideas. I prefer when companies get along and share experiences That's my unpopular opinion.

[jeremygott]

So if I file a patent for using monsters to battle other monsters, I should then be able to sue Nintendo and Gamefreak for millions, right?

[FollowTheFaceless]

If Nintendo wins this - they'll be groundpounded by hundreds of other companies for patents and copyrights THEY infringed, but not been held accountable yet.

[PiboytheThird]

It should be mentioned that the patents were originally from 2021 and were just updated multiple times over the years.