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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Oclaf
I would like to point out that one of those patterns is literally just ridding a creature/mount
Which got my attention from
Force Gaming's video from 1 month ago, linked to exact timestamp of the pattern mentioned
Patent No. 7528390
"In one example of a game program, a riding object for ground or an aerial riding object is selected by a selection operation, and a player character is made to ride on the selected riding object. In the case that the player character riding on the aerial riding object moves toward the ground, a change is automatically made to a state in which the player character rides on the riding object for ground so that the player character can move on the ground."
- Rockpapershotgun
So what, are you going to sue EVERY SINGLE Videogame and especially MMORPGs that have been using a mount creature mechanic?
Is World of Warcraft getting sued?
Charmielius
That's not even just mounts that wording would also Include all vehicles.
VeteranAdventureHobo
I'd like to point out that nintendo is only seeking the equivalent to 66000 dollars. This isn't actually meant to damage poketpair or palworld monetarily as far as I can tell. Its more a warning shot so sony doesnt get cheeky with their pokemon clone imo.
I wouldn't mind a big pokemon like from a different big company if just to see what they do, but pocket pair was really toeing the line with a lot of aspects so this is a "don't fuck with us" warning
supergoron
Hold up, Sony has a Pokemon clone ? Are we talking about Invizimals (which I think is a dead franchise at this point) or is their a new game coming out from them ?
lightsideluc
Sony has partnered with Pocketpair and is already planning a multi-media expansion for it. Bad blood between them goes all the way back to the founding of PlayStation, after all, and the Japanese businesses know how to carry a grudge. They'd like nothing better than to support Pocket to the point of taking a bite out of Pokemon.
supergoron
Huh, I wasn't aware that Sony had that much investment into Pocketpair. Makes sense though if they want a piece of the Pokemon pie to invest into a strong looking up and comer.
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.
Lord DIO
Doesn't change the fact that I'm sure PLENTY of other games have done this in the past. Or, if nothing else, that this whole lawsuit is insanely petty.
Timey16
I certainly can't think of a single one that made it SPECIFICALLY like it was outlined in the patent but feel free to correct me.
Lawsuit is petty, yes but I it was more about the nature of those patents. Basically, you can't really accidentally break them without SPECIFICALLY trying to copy Legends Arceus.
Charmielius
That's BS!
Stealth=critical has been a thing since forever and In a game where you catch monsters making stealth=critical-capture Is a logical extension of that, the mount thing again Is just a logical thing: If you have mounts for different purposes why wouldn't you make the mount button context-sensitive Instead of having to map a button for each mount?
Weather doesn't affect catch rates, It affects encounter rates AND AGAIN that's a logical thing cause of course different animals come out at different times of day and depending on the weather, are they gonna try to patent-strike frogs and worms cause they come out during the rain?!
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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?