1 week Ago
Patent analyst Florian Mueller has released an extensive examination into the lawsuit filed against Palworld developer Pocketpair from Nintendo. In it, he describes Nintendo's actions as "a clear case of bullying" against Pocketpair, citing the former's status as a "far older and larger company" with "extensive experience in patent prosecution and patent infringement litigation" (thanks, GameRant ). It was recently revealed that Nintendo would be seeking an injunction against Palworld to halt sales in Japan, with the additional possibility of Nintendo looking to escalate the dispute in further jurisdictions.
The company is also seeking a payment of 5 million yen with an additional 5 million going to The Pokémon Company, totalling the equivalent of around $66K. Although the monetary damages are said to be negligible, it is the injunction that could hold the most long-term significance. The problem, as highlighted by Mueller, is that Nintendo has not identified a single patent that actually existed at the time of Palworld's release, and had instead chosen to file new patent applications in February, March and July of this year and expedite them in Japanese courts.
It's also been noted that none of the patents filed by Nintendo contain significant technological inventions and are merely mechanics that Nintendo itself acknowledges have been featured in other games. Rather, the patents are related to specific game rules held within the Pokémon franchise, and are therefore said to be 'unpatentable' anywhere in the world. In conclusion, Mueller states that an analysis of the situation suggests that there is no genuine plagiarism on Pocketpair's part, and that Nintendo's actions are merely "an attempt to leverage the patent system against a smaller company and late entrant to the market".
In speaking with GameRant, Mueller also says that the lawsuit will likely take several years to resolves, so it's looks like we're in this for the long haul..
