Nintendo Patent Approved in August Could Be What It Uses Against Palworld

by

Nintendo Patent Approved in August Could Be What It Uses Against Palworld

Key Takeaways

  • A patent attorney has narrowed down the list of potential candidates that could be central to Nintendo‘s lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair to 28 patents.
  • Out of those, one particular intellectual property describing creature-capture mechanics was labeled as a “killer patent” that would be difficult not to infringe when making a game with monster-taming elements.
  • The said property is part of a recently approved patent family consisting of three more patents, all of which were approved mere weeks before Nintendo and The Pokemon Company sued Pocketpair.

As a seasoned gamer with decades of experience under my belt, I can’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for the developers of Palworld amidst this patent dispute. It’s like being a small fish in a sea full of sharks, each one claiming territory as their own.

A Japanese IP attorney has narrowed down the potential patent candidates that could be at the center of Nintendo’s lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair. His analysis also surfaced one particular patent family that he believes is particularly likely to be related to Nintendo’s allegations against Palworld.

On September 18, Pocketpair was sued by both The Pokemon Company and Nintendo for allegedly violating several patents with its popular survival crafting game. Following the filing of their lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court, neither company has provided further details about their claims publicly.

Attorney Narrows Down Potential Palworld Infringements to 28 Patents

Later, Pocketpair stated they were unaware of any patents that Palworld is claimed to be violating. However, patent attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara from Japan mentioned in an interview with Yahoo News (translated by Automation) that the list of potential infringing patents isn’t extensive. Since the lawsuit was jointly submitted by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, it is reasonable to assume that the contested patents might belong to both entities. As a result, Kurihara suggested that there are approximately 28 patents under consideration.

Nintendo Has a ‘Killer Patent’ For Capturing Pokemon, Attorney Says

In this remaining group, Kurihara emphasized Japanese patent number 7545191, focusing on the mechanics of capturing creatures, which was submitted in late July 2024 and granted the following month after a fast-track review process requested by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company. This patent belongs to a broader family of patents explaining how to aim a capture item at a character using two inputs – an analog stick and a button press – and then release it. This action triggers a check to see if the character’s status should be changed to “owned by the player.” The attached diagrams in the patent show something similar to the Poke Ball Plus controller being used for the required inputs.

Kurihara referred to it as a “broadly applicable” patent that could potentially be challenging to bypass when developing a game similar to Pokémon. He added that carelessness could easily lead to infringement. In an interview with Game Rant, Florian Mueller, a seasoned patent analyst, suggested that patent 7545191 being the focus of Nintendo’s lawsuit against Pocketpair is a credible assumption.

The swift review of patent 7545191 not only led to the approval of three other patents by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company (patent numbers 7528390, 7493117, and 7505854), but Kurihara suggests that modifying an existing patent for a specific legal dispute is a common industry practice. It’s plausible this was the case here. Among these three divisional patents, two focus on additional aspects of capturing creatures, while the last one details a system for riding creatures, a feature also found in the game Palworld.

Read More

2024-09-20 21:53