Pocketpair Reveals 'Patents' Subject To Nintendo's 'Palworld' Lawsuit, And Indeed One Of Them Is The 'Aiming' Patent
When Nintendo sued Palworld developers Pocketpair seven weeks ago, it raised eyebrows by suing the company on mysterious "patent infringement" claims, rather than copyright infringement, which many saw as Nintendo's most obvious avenue for legal action given how closely the designs of Pals align with the designs of Pokémon.
Today, the patents allegedly infringed upon were revealed by Pocketpair in a new update on the ongoing lawsuit between the two video game companies.
Three of the patents are the target of Nintendo's lawsuit, and it is suing Pocketpair for 10 million yen (roughly $65,250) plus late fees, with 5 million yen to Nintendo and 5 million to The Pokémon Company.
As suspected by some weeks ago, two of the patents targeted involve the "aim" system used in Palworld, in essence meaning Nintendo is claiming Palworld nicked its "aim and throw" system the company utilized in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. The third regards a monster-riding mechanic that Pocketpair allegedly infringed upon.
The update led to intensified backlash against Nintendo, as many found the patent lawsuit frivolous. Others also found it legally dubious, as in Pocketpair's update, the allegedly violated patents were applied for and registered in 2024 after Palworld released, but that's misleading, as the patents were accepted in 2021 and revised in 2024.
It remains to be seen if Pocketpair will fight the lawsuit, though the company said, "We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings," in its update.
At the very least, social media voiced that the $66,000 lawsuit shouldn't bankrupt Pocketpair should it lose the lawsuit.
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Timey16
FYI Pocketpair is lying a bit out of omission.
These patents were NOT filed in 2024, but 2021. 2024 is just the recent version of it. This is why the expiration date is still 2041… exactly 20 years after the original filing date.
Also before anyone also mentions the generic nature of them… that's the abstract. The abstract of EVERY patent will make them seem generic. That's what abstracts do.
The riding patent is specifically more about the fact that each mount has different skills such as climbing, flying, swimming, digging, and that your summon button summons them based on context (such as getting the flying one when you jump or fall).
It's not about riding a mount per se.
Similar for the catching one. It's more about how actions like stealth, hitting the ball from behind, different factors of the pokemon or environment in combination with different weather affect catch rates, and that you also use balls to interact with the game by throwing a ball containing a monster on another one to start a battle or against an object to interact with it. So using balls as an extended "use" key.
Like questionable nature of patenting gameplay features aside, these patents are anything but generic. Patents of natural feeling mechanics (like pinch to zoom) just feel generic in hindsight AFTER someone invented them because they just feel that intuitive to use.
RemChi
So like,
Ape Escape also gets caught in this, cuz you can throw nets to catch characters.
or hell, any game with a net-throwing minigame.
Saber THE Totodile
chausies
The current copyright/patent system is so absolutely fucked and absurd and anti-consumer. We need to go at it with a chainsaw, or a nuke, or a nuclear chainsaw.
Odie
Everyone get one of those
FatmanAss
what?