They say that some things are “inevitable,” and this next story is one that is indeed “inevitable” given the parties involved. Earlier this year, Pocketpair, the team behind the hit title Palworld, released its very Pokemon-esque game to the world and many people enjoyed it in its opening months. However, the question was always, “Would The Pokemon Company respond or say they were stealing their character designs?” Well, we have a partial answer to that question because the company has officially filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, but not for what you might think.
You see, as noted by the tweet below, they’re going after Pocketpair for “patent infringement,” which is much different than going after copyrighted material like Pokemon character designs:
Nintendo w/ The Pokemon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair Inc.
This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the… pic.twitter.com/5BAt6Q7a35
— Wario64 (@Wario64) September 18, 2024
Where this all leads is anyone’s guess, but we know that The Pokemon Company has taken down titles it feels are infringements on its brand, so this might not be any different.
