Pocketpair has responded to Nintendo filing a lawsuit over Palworld.
Last night (September 18) Nintendo and The Pokémon Company shared a joint statement announcing that they had filed a lawsuit against Palworld developers Pocketpair.
Palworld was first teased back in 2021 and quickly became known as “Pokémon with guns”. When the game launched earlier this year, a number of Pokémon fans asked Nintendo to take legal action against the survival monster collector. The company promised to “investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon.”
Nine months later, Nintendo has finally taken action against Pocketpair. The suit alleges that Palworld “infringes multiple patent rights” and Nintendo are “seeking an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages”.
“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,” the statement continued.
We posted the News Release "Filing Lawsuit for Infringement of Patent Rights against Pocketpair, Inc."https://t.co/76ttENZXtv
— 任天堂株式会社（企業広報・IR） (@NintendoCoLtd) September 18, 2024
Responding to the news, Pocketpair shared a statement of their own earlier today (September 19) that claims the company is currently “unaware” of which patents they’ve been accused of infringing upon but are working on the “appropriate legal proceedings”.
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“Our goal as a company has always been to create fun games. We will continue to pursue this goal because we know that our games bring joy to millions of gamers around the world,” continued the “small indie game company”.
Pocketpair went on to say the success of Palworld was a “surprise” and the studio has been “working hard to make it even better”.
“It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas. We apologize to our fans and supporters for any worry or discomfort that this news has caused,” Pocketpair added.
Regarding the Lawsuit
Yesterday, a lawsuit was filed against our company for patent infringement.
We have received notice of this lawsuit and will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement.
At this moment, we are unaware…
— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) September 19, 2024
Speaking to NME in 2021, CEO Takuro Mizobe said he was “surprised” by the Pokémon comparisons “especially those labeling it as ‘Pokémon with guns’. Pokémon definitely inspired us, but Palworld is far more action-orientated in comparison.” As it stands, Palworld is still available to buy and play.
In other news, one YouTuber has gone viral after waiting in a bear’s den before meeting the creature when it returned.