Nintendo and Pokémon are suing Palworld maker Pocketpair

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, which makes the game Palworld.

From Nintendo’s 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.

In response, Pocketpair issued a statement saying it was unaware of any patents it had violated and was not “notified of such details.” Nevertheless, it would begrudgingly begin investigating the claims:

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.

Palworld, which is still in early access, became one of the first big gaming hits of 2024 when it launched in January, selling more than 5 million copies in three days.

The survival / crafting game, which has been described as “Pokémon with guns,” has your character working with monsters, or “Pals.” But some of Palworld’s monster designs are remarkably similar to pokémon, and people almost immediately called out Palworld for the apparent rip-offs.

Update, September 19th: Added statement from Pocketpair.