Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a lawsuit against the Palworld Developer Pocketpair.
An official statement on Nintendo’s website mentions that a “patent infringement lawsuit” was filed against Pocketpair in the Tokyo District Court this week. The lawsuit seeks an “injunction against the infringement and damages,” accusing Palworld of violating “multiple patent rights.”
Nintendo says it will continue to protect the intellectual property it has “worked hard to build over the years.” Here is the full text:
Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, hereinafter “Nintendo”), together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, Inc. (Headquarters: 2-10-2 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, hereinafter “Defendant”) in the Tokyo District Court on September 18, 2024.
This action seeks an injunction and damages on the grounds that Palworlda game developed and published by the defendant, infringes several patent rights.
Nintendo will continue to take the necessary steps against any infringement of its intellectual property rights, including the Nintendo brand itself, in order to protect the intellectual property it has worked hard to build over the years.
Stephen Totilo of Game File also shared a response he received from a Nintendo representative when asked “why Nintendo is suing in September when the game came out in January”:
“We have filed the lawsuit at this time after carefully reviewing the content that is the subject of this lawsuit. We will refrain from commenting on matters related to the content of the lawsuit.”
In a statement in January, the Pokémon Company said it will always take “appropriate action” to address any acts that infringe intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.
Open-world survival and crafting game Palworld launched earlier this year and was a hit on PC and Xbox. The title was also made available through Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service. Since then, it has received extensive updates that have added new locations and “Pals.”
