The Palworld and Nintendo lawsuit isn’t slowing down, with Palworld fighting back against the legal action by claiming they’re not the only ones to copy Nintendo’s patent.
When Palworld was released, it was quickly linked to Pokemon with gameplay similarities, as players can throw ‘Pal Spheres’ to catch ‘Pals’ and use them in battle or create items. Shortly after it was released, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developers behind Palworld.
Pocketpair refuted the claims, sharing that they’ll be fighting the suit as much as possible and continue to do so. Now, we’ve got the first major glimpse at PocketPair’s defense, which argues that the patents-in-suit shouldn’t have been granted, as multiple games already use the features that Nintendo are suing for.
PocketPair claim Nintendo’s patents shouldn’t have been granted
In PocketPairs’ argument, as shared by Games Fray, they explain that Nintendo’s patents-in-suit shouldn’t have been granted initially, as there were prior games released before the date the patent was made that cover what Nintendo claims to have invented.
PocketPair highlighted similar games to back up their invalidity contentions. These include their previous title, Craftopia, Rune Factory 5, Titanfall 2, and Pikmin 3 Deluxe, all of which allow players to release or capture a monster or item and fire it in a specific direction.
This directly links to one of Nintendo’s patents-in-suit (JP7545191), which details “capturing characters by releasing fighting characters (monsters) or capture balls.”
They also used the Nukamon mod for Fallout, Octopath Traveler, and Monster Hunter 4G to argue the irrelevancy of their other patents-in-suit (JP7493117), which focuses on capturing characters.
Lastly, their defense references ARK and The Legend of Zelda in regards to the patent (JP7528390) that highlights “the ‘smooth switching’ of riding objects.”
PocketPair is arguing that so many other games have used the same features, which were already known elements of games, before Nintendo filed the original patent application.
Currently, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are each seeking 5 million yen plus late payment fees, but their response to the defense remains to be seen.
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