On September 18th 2024, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company (TPCi) filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement against Pocket Pair Inc, the developers behind Palworld.
Palworld is a Steam game that is an action-adventure survival game, and involves hunting for monsters. Many Pokémon fans and gamers immediately began to draw parallels between Palworld and Pokémon, with many calling Palworld ‘Pokémon with guns’. It quickly sold over 8 millions copies on Steam in it’s first few days of release. Social media users shared similarities between designs that seemed to combine two or three Pokémon into one Palworld monster, making many wonder if there was copyright infringement involved, or AI used to create designs.
Back in January 2024 The Pokémon Company addressed the Palworld situation, stating:
“We have received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024,” The Pokemon Company wrote. “We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game. 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.”
Since the initial statement TPCi had been quiet on the situation, with Pocket Pair Inc stating that they had not heard from Nintendo or TPCi, though some who created mods using Pokémon characters were contacted by Nintendo for their immediate removal.
This changed on September 18th 2024, when the lawsuit was announced after what appears to have been months of investigation and analysis. Here is the press release:
“Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter), together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. (HQ: 2-10-2 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, “Defendant” hereafter) on September 18, 2024.
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.
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.”
Interestingly this news comes hot off another Nintendo TPCi lawsuit finding in their favor, after they won a copyright lawsuit against Chinese app Koudaiyaoguai Fuke (also known as Pocket Monster Reissue). This lawsuit was filed in 2021, taking 3 years to come to fruition.
This was a turn-based role-playing game that used Pokémon characters including Ash Ketchum and Pikachu. The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court has acknowledged the copyright infringement and ordered one of six companies accused in the lawsuit to pay 107 million Chinese Yuan (approximately $15 million USD) in damages to Nintendo and TPCi. Three of the remaining six companies were ordered to bear joint liability but have filed an appeal that is ongoing.
This Palworld copyright infringement lawsuit is likely to take several years to pan out, and the implications on the gaming world could be quite interesting and have a far reaching impact.
Palworld and Pocket Pair Inc has not yet issued a statement on this lawsuit filing.
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