After 9 months in the market, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company sued Palworld with the argument that the latter is “Infringing patents” of one of the most legendary franchises: Pokémon. This lawsuit was launched in the last hours, symbolizing a huge risk for the developers and creative team of “Pocketpair” company in charge of Palworld that to date had made a name for themselves in the gaming industry.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company hit back hard and Palworld responds
Pocketpair is a studio called “Indie” and creators of very entertaining video games like Craftopia, Never Grave and their biggest hit Palworld, one of the most popular video games in this 2024 and that took all gamers by surprise to believe that it was a “Copy of Pokémon”, but ended up delighting many. During this period of 9 months in the market, the game has sold millions of copies, being something unexpected for the Pocketpair team, as well as for those who underestimated the game, and of course for Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, who did not like this news.
The patience of the executives behind these companies was exhausted and after making an exhaustive analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of being involved in a lawsuit against Pocketpair and the brand in question, they decided to take the first step. And in recent hours they have sued Pocketpair and the people responsible for this brand under the argument of being “Infringing patents”.
On Nintendo’s official website, it is reported that the company “Pocketpair” is basically accused of infringing the Pokémon patent, seeking damages for stealing intellectual property that has been used over many years. After being notified of the lawsuit, those responsible for Palworld did not stay with their arms crossed and responded to the lawsuit in a very controversial way, but according to the owner, that will serve as motivation for other indie studios.
After being notified on Thursday, September 19, 2024 of the patent infringement lawsuit, the company responded pointedly to the accusation: “It is really unfortunate that we are forced to spend a lot of time on problems that have nothing to do with the development of the game, due to this legal action”. In turn, those represented by Takuro Mizobe add that, “The information of the specific patents they allegedly copied was not disclosed to them” and added that, “They are a small company whose goal has always been to create fun games.”
Despite being this, they are not afraid of both giants of the gaming industry and will continue with this lawsuit, in the words of the indie studio: “We will do everything we can for our fans and to make sure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from developing their creative ideas”. Pocketpair, despite this warning, will continue to develop the game and add improvements to keep their users satisfied, the Palworld studios end by thanking all their fans for the support received to date.
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