Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are suing the Palworld developers for "infringement of patent rights"

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the Palwoods and hunt large, electric yellow animals of entirely original design whose names rhyme with "peekaboo", Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have announced that they're taking Palworld developers Pocketpair to court for "infringement of patent rights".

"This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights," reads a terse statement published last night.

"Nintendo will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years," it adds.

The statement doesn't specify which of Nintendo's intellectual property rights Palworld has allegedly infringed.

Palworld, in case you're still catching up, is a monster-catching survival game with monsters that are maybe just possibly a teeny bit like Pokémon. There was some discussion of this earlier in the year, when Palworld set Steam records at launch - some Pokédefenders were convinced that Pocketpair had actually broken intellectual property law. We interviewed a lawyer about it ourselves - he told us that, on the whole, Pals and Pokémon are "sufficiently different that there's no problem". Nintendo evidently disagree.

There were warning signs that Nintendo - who are a lot more protective of their intellectual property than their cherubic branding suggests - would take action back in January. "We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game," they wrote in a comment at the time. "We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon. We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world, and work to bring the world together through Pokémon in the future."

Back in January, I interpreted that partly as a weary acknowledgement to Pokémon fans that, yes, they were aware of Palworld's existence. In hindsight, I think I underestimated Nintendo's litigiousness. The question I have is: if Nintendo wins this lawsuit, what does that bode for other artistic works that take inspiration from Pokémon? Palworld might be a bit of a rip-off, but it's a very different game moment to moment, somewhat to its cost.

Update 19th September 2024: Pocketpair have responded to Nintendo's lawsuit, stating that they are beginning "the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement" and that "at this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details".

They add: "It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas."