The reason patent attorneys get paid so much money is that no one in their right mind would ever want to be a patent attorney. Thus, we can all nod and smile as if we understand as Palworld developers Pocketpair releases a statement about precisely which patents Nintendo is claiming the Pokémon-alike game is violating.
The statement also includes details on the damages Nintendo is seeking, for what it’s claiming is a violation of it intellectual property. The company wants 10 million yen to be equally split between Nintendo Co., Ltd., and The Pokémon Company. That works out to just under $33,000 each.
Read More: The Internet Reacts To Pokémon Suing Palworld
We reported in September that it was likely this would come to down to patents. What’s so peculiar here, other than the paltry damages sought, is that all three patents cited by Nintendo’s lawyers in the lawsuit, as revealed by Pocketpair, were registered between May and August of this year. Palworld came out, to rather enormous attention, in January. So what’s going on?
“The Plaintiffs,” says Pocketpair, “claim that ‘Palworld,’ released by us on January 19, 2024, infringes upon the following three patents held by the Plaintiffs, and are seeking an injunction against the game and compensation for a portion of the damages incurred between the date of registration of the patents and the date of filing of this lawsuit.”
They then list them as follows:
Patent No. 7545191
[Patent application date: July 30, 2024]
[Patent registration date: August 27, 2024]
Patent No. 7493117
[Patent application date: February 26, 2024]
[Patent registration date: May 22, 2024]
Patent No. 7528390
[Patent application date: March 5, 2024]
[Patent registration date: July 26, 2024]
Looking up those patents, the first alludes to a system where a player aims and fires an “item” toward a character in a field, and in doing so triggers combat, and then dives into extraordinary intricacies about switching between modes within this. The second is very similar, but seems more directly focused on tweaking previous patents to including being able to capture Pokémon in the wild, rather than only during battle. The third, rather wildly, seems to be trying to claim a modification to the invention of riding creatures in an open world and being able to transition between them easily.
All three patents are successful requests to modify previously established patents, each noticeably designed to match the newer features in more recent Pokémon games. Given the first games to feature these details—Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Scarlet and Violet came out in 2022—these might be thought of as belated changes. However, according to one Japanese patent lawyer, these changes would have been added in order to better frame the previously established inventions, rushed through in order the pursue the case.
Breaking news: patenting ideas is grotesque.
Pocketpair adds, “We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings,” so show no signs of backing down in the face of the behemothic rival.
It’s obviously of some significant note that this legal action was announced just two months after Pocketpair announced it had teamed up with Sony to create a new company to merchandize the game’s Pals. The indie developer has always been enormously confident it isn’t violating any Nintendo copyright, while at the same time loudly encouraging others to copy and clone its game.
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