Nintendo’s patent was filed after Palworld released a Proposal in preparation for a lawsuit that began months ago
Last week, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced that they File a patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair While the latter studio declared that was “unaware of the specific patents we were accused of infringing”, online speculation quickly began churning out many plausible-sounding submissions from Nintendo’s back catalogue.
While there’s still no official word on what design is involved in this case, law firm MBHB associate Andrew Velzen noted (via GamesIndustry.biz) that some seemingly important patents have in fact been filed Later Palworld release, shows that Nintendo has been pursuing the lawsuit for some time.
Velzen highlights four specific patents filed by Japan (out of 28 patents nominated by patent attorneys for Automated vehicles) which he believes is crucial to Nintendo’s infringement argument. They seem to cover big themes like capturing and riding various characters, and importantly they were all sent after Palworld was released.
The filing process for each of these Japanese designs is accelerated through what Velzen calls “expedited examination procedures,” meaning that patents can be upheld sooner and potentially used. in the legal environment.
They were each filed as sections of Nintendo’s existing patents, derived from “parent patents” that the company claimed as its own. In this case, “mother” was filed in December 2021 and is legally enforceable for use against Palworld (according to Automaton Media).
Four seemingly corresponding patents have been filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (making them legal in North America as well as Japan), and while two of these were filed in September 2022 — before Palworld — the remaining two patents first appeared in May 2024, after which Palworld released them.
These two independent declarations (U.S. Application No. 18/652,874 and Application No. 18/652,883) read as follows:
A computer-readable non-permanent storage medium containing a game program which, when executed by the computer of an information processing device, causes the computer to perform operations including : based on the received direction input, determine the aiming direction in virtual space ; and in the first mode, causes the player character to launch, in an aiming direction, a capture item to capture a field character positioned on a field in virtual space, based on manipulation input and when the item The launched catch will touch the character field, making the determination of a successful catch relative to whether the catch was successful or not; and when the result of determining a successful capture is positive, set the field character to be captured by the captured item in the player’s possession, and in the second mode, cause the player’s character to launch, in the aiming direction, a fighting character, and causes the field character and the fighting character to start fighting on the field.
A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium containing within it a game program that causes the computer of an information processing device to provide executable capabilities including: controlling a player’s character in air virtual space based on first operation input; involves selecting, based on a selection operation, a boarding object that the player character can board and giving boarding instructions, causing the player character to board the boarding object and puts the player character in a state in which the player character can move, wherein the boarding object is selected from among a variety of objects possessed by the player character; involves providing a second operational input while the player character is in the air, causing the player character to board a flying object and putting the player character in a state where it can move in the air; and while the player character is on the boarding object, move the player character, on the boarding object, in the air based on the third action input.
There’s a lot of legitimate patents going on in there, but the first seems to be directly related to the catch/release mechanic, while the second is more about riding creatures on ground or in the air.
Like the Japanese examples, these two US patents have been filed under a ‘Track One’ request, which will similarly expedite the examination process.
Currently, without any official confirmation, we cannot know for sure that these designs will contribute to the Palworld lawsuit nor that they were submitted with the sole intention of fighting Pocketpair. That said, seeing that some of them were submitted after Palworld’s release, and how relevant they are to mechanics like Pokéballs/Pal Spheres and riding on Pokémon/Pals, it seems certain Surely Nintendo is preparing for something.
Velzen notes that both of the patents cited above have yet to be approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office – the former was rejected for “lack of subject matter eligibility” and the former was rejected for “lack of subject matter eligibility”. the latter because “obvious”. Nintendo now has the opportunity to amend both (or object to the denial) on October 19 and 31, respectively. If the company succeeds in overcoming both issues, it will likely contribute to lawsuit against Pocketpair.
Looking at these submissions, it seems like Nintendo has been preparing its argument for a long time. Gaming analyst Serkan Toto recently stated (via Media 404) that he Surely Nintendo will escape the lawsuitwhile others prefer business lawyers Richard Hoeg suggests that the company is “achievable”.
Whatever the outcome, the lawsuit appears to have affected Pocketpair. Just this week, the company Palworld PS5 release has been paused in several countries and while no specific reason has been given for the delay, it certainly seems quite a bit of a lawsuit to us.
