Nintendo and The Pokémon Company Sue Palworld Developer Pocketpair Over Alleged Patent Infringement

Comments

• ShinyFlygon Member UncommonPosts: 589

  September 19

  HA! I said this was inevitable, and people said I was crazy.
  
  I will take my apologies in the form of cash, please.

  
• cheyane Member LegendaryPosts: 9,385

  September 19 edited September 19

  They have not shown what the infringement is and there is no guarantee they will win anything. In my opinion it will be settled. Nintendo is saving face.

  

  
  
• ShinyFlygon Member UncommonPosts: 589

  September 19

  
  

  cheyane said:

  
  

  They have not shown what the infringement is and there is no guarantee they will win anything. In my opinion it will be settled. Nintendo is saving face.

  
  

  
  
  It's more about protecting their IP from future infringements. Even if they don't win, they have to show that they believe a line was crossed. If they do not, more egregious transgressions become harder to litigate.

  
• slowz2secret Member RarePosts: 445

  September 19

  nintendo thinks they invented monster taming genre x.x

  
• Xiaoki Member EpicPosts: 4,036

  September 19

  ShinyFlygon said:

  HA! I said this was inevitable, and people said I was crazy.
  
  I will take my apologies in the form of cash, please.

  
  

  You don't patent character designs. You copyright character designs.
  

  
  

  So, this is most likely based on a very vague software patent for gameplay uses.
  

  
  

  Nintendo realized they couldn't sue over the pal designs so they became a patent troll.
  

  
  

  You should look up Worlds.com Inc. Famous software patent troll that has sued many MMO developers for patents like "methods to enable users to interact in a virtual space" and even better "ability to chat with other users"

  
• harken33 Member UncommonPosts: 286

  September 19

  cheyane said:

  They have not shown what the infringement is and there is no guarantee they will win anything. In my opinion it will be settled. Nintendo is saving face.

  
  

  Even when Nintendo *settles* with a company legally its generally viewed as a win for Nintendo. They just got $2.4 million out of that emulator company this year alone. 

  
  

  Apparently the Nintendo legal dream team has a very high win to loss ratio, according to one games analyst in Tokyo.
  

  
  

  
  

  https://www.gamesradar.com/games/survival/i-think-this-will-end-bad-for-pocketpair-analyst-says-nintendos-feared-legal-team-wouldnt-sue-palworld-unless-it-was-confident-of-victory/
  

  
  

  "Nintendo wouldn't sue Palworld unless it was pretty sure it could win a hefty chunk of the survival game's "hundreds of millions" of revenue, says one industry analyst who knows just how scary the Nintendo legal team is.

  Speaking to GamesRadar+ about Nintendo's Palworld lawsuit, analyst Serkan Toto points out that "Nintendo is famously protective of its IP, and they have a very, very strong legal team that is feared in the Japanese gaming industry. You don't want to make Nintendo angry." That team's strength is part of why it's taken so long for this lawsuit to rear its head. It's been seven months since Palworld launched, and Toto posits that in that time, "Nintendo wanted to be absolutely thorough. They didn't want to shoot from the hip."

  "[They wanted to] make absolutely sure that everything is mapped out, that they have counter-arguments against anything that Pocketpair will say in court, and only if they are able to build a really strong case where they think they are going to win, they will file the lawsuit. And I think that Nintendo is going into this lawsuit thinking that they're going to win. And I fear, looking at the track record, it's highly likely that they win."

  Toto claims he "cannot really remember a single lawsuit that Nintendo itself initiated in Japan that they lost. I think they won every single one of them." While there's a first time for everything, he also thinks that "this will end bad for Pocketpair," and that Nintendo will be coming for as much money as possible from the company. "

  
  

  
• Wargfoot Member EpicPosts: 1,406

  September 19

  ShinyFlygon said:

  HA! I said this was inevitable, and people said I was crazy.
  
  I will take my apologies in the form of cash, please.

  You're still crazy.

  
• Elidien_ga Member UncommonPosts: 385

  September 19

  This will be interesting to watch and could have major repercussions on the industry as a whole. From an outsider and non-legal perspective, my first thought when Palworld launched was "they gonna get sued". I believe this lawsuit was inevitable the moment the game hit the market.
• ShinyFlygon Member UncommonPosts: 589

  September 19 edited September 19

  Xiaoki said:

  ShinyFlygon said:

  HA! I said this was inevitable, and people said I was crazy.
  
  I will take my apologies in the form of cash, please.

  
  

  You don't patent character designs. You copyright character designs.
  

  
  

  So, this is most likely based on a very vague software patent for gameplay uses.
  

  
  

  Nintendo realized they couldn't sue over the pal designs so they became a patent troll.
  

  
  

  You should look up Worlds.com Inc. Famous software patent troll that has sued many MMO developers for patents like "methods to enable users to interact in a virtual space" and even better "ability to chat with other users"

  
  Oh, look, here's Xiaoki building another straw man. What a surprise.
  
• mcrippins Member RarePosts: 1,642

  September 19

  Didn't Pokemon basically rip off DQ's artwork?

  
• caalem Member UncommonPosts: 310

  September 19

  Unsurprising, Japan has insane IP laws. Yes, that is by western IP law standards which are already rather insane.
• caalem Member UncommonPosts: 310

  September 19 edited September 19

  Elidien_ga said:

  This will be interesting to watch and could have major repercussions on the industry as a whole. From an outsider and non-legal perspective, my first thought when Palworld launched was "they gonna get sued". I believe this lawsuit was inevitable the moment the game hit the market.

  Nothing will change, they're being taken to court in Japan with two Japanese developers.
  
  
  This is something that would get tossed because game mechanics aren't protected by patents in USA. I'm sure someone is going to link patents of various game mechanics, but getting a patent is the easy part — it's enforcing the patent that's the hard part. And since the Alice decision, every computer game-related patent case that I'm aware of has been tossed.
  
  
  [edit]
  And to people arguing over it being about character designs, it's definitely not. It's patent law.
• Quizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,483

  September 19

  Calling it patent infringement makes me wonder if the press release is a bad translation.  Alleging patent infringement, at least as the word is understood in English, would almost certainly be a completely frivolous lawsuit.  Copyright or trademark infringement are far more plausible.  However, as both companies are Japanese, it is Japanese laws that are relevant, and the relevant concepts in Japanese law are likely to differ from those in American law.

  
• Nosferatupac Member UncommonPosts: 28

  September 20

  Bintendo can suck eggs. They haven't made a good Pokemon game in over a decade.
  
  Curious to find out which patent is supposedly being infringed upon, but I hope they lose.
  
  Just a wealthy company exploiting the patent system to bully the competition.

  
• OldKingLog Member RarePosts: 600

  September 20

  Meh, no love for Nintendo from me. They've always been a pack of overly litigious pricks and always will be.
  

  
• [Deleted User] Posts: 0

  September 20 edited September 20

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• Neoyoshi Member RarePosts: 1,450

  September 20 edited September 20

  Remember when they wouldn't even go after them?  Nintendo had to wait until these guys started making so much money that Nintendo couldn't ignore them anymore....
  
  It is distressing to see that no matter how much time passes, Nintendo is still a big greedy dickhead that'll do anything to take out competition.
  
  EDIT:  This is really frustrating because all these guys (this small group of developers) all they wanted to do was create a monster taming game that GameFreak and The Pokemon Company refused to make.... that is really all they are doing, that's why people love Palworld so much.
  
  They shouldn't be punished for trying to make a better video game.

  
  
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• Kyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,975

  September 20

  Kageno said:

  -_- what a fucking joke this is pathetic
  
  
  Edit: Also heres another lawsuit thats gonna take 5-10 years lmao

  I did a little research on the Alice decision and it's impact on software patent challenges.
  
  Definitely made it easier for even the little guys to defend their efforts from patent infringement claims but due to vague and confusing wording outcomes can vary depending on how each court interprets it.
  
  Alice may not even be applicable in Japan's courts where this case is likely to be tried.
  
  Should be interesting to watch and one source noted Alice did make it much easier for defendents to ask for dismissal much more quickly without having to present evidence.
  
  

  

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• Theocritus Member LegendaryPosts: 9,976

  September 20 edited September 20

  "It is distressing to see that no matter how much time passes, Nintendo is still a big greedy dickhead that'll do anything to take out competition."

  
  

  It is obvious though that Palworld is a blatant ripoff of their IP....SHould other companies be able to just steal what others have done and make money off of it? We see this in music and movies all the time (and gaming too)
  

  
• Tiller Member LegendaryPosts: 11,449

  September 20 edited September 20

  
  

  ShinyFlygon said:

  
  

  HA! I said this was inevitable, and people said I was crazy.
  
  
  
  I will take my apologies in the form of cash, please.

  
  

  
  
  I said the same thing, looks like they were waiting on the outcome of another lawsuit they had going against some other Chinese developers. The characters were blatant rip off/look-a-likes. They should have done better with character design.

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• Kyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,975

  September 23

  Nintendo is definitely not challenging PalWorld over copyrighted artwork, rather they are relying on a series of "killer" patents they took out between 2021-2023 on the mechanic of capturing a creature in a ball for later use.
  
  "Much of the potential patent infringement circles back to a patent filed in 2021 that explains in extremely granular terms the process of throwing a spherical object at an in-game creature in a 3-D space to capture it. Additional reporting points out how four divisional patent applications were filed by Nintendo shortly after Palworld launched and were accelerated through the approval process, presumably in order for Nintendo to firm up its infringement case."
  
  https://massivelyop.com/2024/09/23/legal-analysts-paint-a-grim-picture-for-pocketpairs-chances-in-nintendos-palworld-lawsuit/
  
  

  "True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde 
  

  "I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant

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  Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
  

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• cheyane Member LegendaryPosts: 9,385

  September 23 edited September 23

  I don't know anything about Japanese laws on this but can a patent be used retrospectively?
  
  Also damn underhanded of them to use sphere. Nintendo uses a ball and Palworld a sphere. They patent should only be for a ball not sphere. That is very sneaky of Nintendo.
  
  Palworld should change the item they use to catch to a rhombus and screw it.

  
  
• Scot Member LegendaryPosts: 24,273

  September 23

  I think this follows the suing golden rule, make sure the person or organisation has a ton of money before you sue. The more the better as the more you can then claim was by proxy "yours".
• cheyane Member LegendaryPosts: 9,385

  September 23

  Digimon uses a digi device to catch
  
  
  
  Nexomon a pyramid trap
  
  
  TemTem a card like device
  
  
  
  
  Yugioh uses a card too
  
  
  
  The actual monster capture game is not something Nintendo can patent but the device can be patented. 
  
  Idiot Palworld used a sphere. They could have picked any other shape ...fools!!

  

  
  
• Kyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,975

  September 23

  Good point, apparently other companies thought to use a different shape and haven't run into an issue over said use.

  "True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde 
  

  "I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant

  Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
  

  Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
  

  Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™

  "This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon