Pocketpair’s Shocking Defense Against Nintendo: Is Palworld Legal?

by

Summary

  • Pocketpair responded to Nintendo’s Palworld patent complaint in two stages.
  • The Palworld developer argued both invalidity and non-infringement in the face of the patent lawsuit.
  • The non-infringement arguments will only come into play if Pocketpair fails to successfully argue that Nintendo’s patents at the center of the lawsuit are invalid.

Pocketpair has put forth an extensive, multi-point argument in defense against the lawsuit filed by Nintendo regarding the game Palworld. In their response to Nintendo’s patent claim, the creators of Palworld referenced a number of different games, including Octopath Traveler and Far Cry 5.

In September 2024, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair in Japan, claiming that the game Palworld violates several patents they jointly own. The developer of Palworld has publicly declared their intention to contest the lawsuit, but have not disclosed any specific strategies they plan to use.

New details about the defense strategy of the company have surfaced, as Games Fray released information obtained from the Tokyo District Court regarding Pocketpair’s initial response to the lawsuit. In addressing the three patents central to the Palworld complaint, the company presented both invalidity and non-infringement arguments.

Palworld’s Prior Art Defense Against Patent JP7545191

Regarding the dispute over patent JP7545191, which outlines a system for capturing and deploying creatures in combat, Pocketpair contended that none of its components were novel when they submitted their application towards the end of 2021. To support this assertion, they referenced their earlier game, Craftopia, arguing that while it doesn’t encompass all the elements outlined in Nintendo’s patent, it could be integrated with features from other existing games to achieve similar results. Furthermore, they pointed out several previous titles such as Titanfall 2, Far Cry 5, Tomb Raider, and Octopath Traveler, whose systems share similarities with patent JP7545191. In combination with Craftopia, these games could potentially result in the creature capture system found in Pocketpair’s upcoming game, Palworld.

Palworld’s Prior Art Defense Against Patents JP7493117 and JP7528390

In their counterargument regarding patent JP7493117, Pocketpair suggested a parallel claim. They argued that their system for aiming and calculating capture chances in games, similar to the one described in the patent, was not new. This is because they could have combined elements from games like ‘Dark Souls 3’ (specifically its mod ‘Pocket Souls’) with games such as ‘Craftopia’, ‘Fallout 4’ (specifically its mod ‘NukaMon’), ‘Monster Super League’, or ‘Nexomon’. The result, they proposed, would have been mechanics akin to those in the game ‘Palworld’. Furthermore, Pocketpair cited patent JP7528390, which outlines a system for switching rideable objects on-the-fly, as another example of prior art. They referenced ‘ARK’ as an obvious precedent that stands alone and would be sufficient to invalidate Nintendo’s patent claim.

In the court case, Pocketpair presented several counter-claims stating that their work does not violate each of the three patents at issue. These arguments would be relevant if they don’t manage to prove the patents are invalid first. The non-infringement claims were filed with the Tokyo District Court on January 31, 2025, and the counter argument for patent invalidity was submitted later, on February 21.

Read More

2025-04-18 20:05