And in the end, it happened: Nintendo has sued the creators of ‘Palworld’, the "Pokemon with guns"

‘Palworld‘, which has been a success of epic proportions from any angle, was in the crosshairs of a company that defends its intellectual property tooth and nail: Nintendo. The similarity of some elements of ‘Palworld’ with those of ‘Pokémon’ caused the game to arrive surrounded by controversy. The Pokémon Company It was not long before he said that they would investigate the matter and take the necessary measures if they deemed it appropriate. And so it has been.

Nintendo vs PocketpairIndeed, Nintendo, together with The Pokémon Company, has sued Pocketpair, creators of ‘Palworld’, for a violation of its intellectual property. According to The statement reads Issued by Nintendo:

“This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and damages on the grounds that ‘Palworld’a game developed and released by the defendant, infringes multiple patent rights. Nintendo will continue to take appropriate action against any infringement of its intellectual property rights, including the Nintendo trademark itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years.”

Pocketpair has not yet commented on the matter.

Reasonable similarities. That ‘Palworld’ is very similar in some ways to Pokémon is no secret. There are Pals, the creatures of the game, that are identical to some Pokémon. They are not exactly the same, but they are similar enough to raise suspicions and raise the occasional eyebrow. There are designs that are Almost exact copies of Pokémonwith a few variations here and there. These things are not usually amusing to Nintendo, which does not usually hesitate to take legal action.

It was coming. ‘Palworld’ was launched in January and The Pokémon Company was quick to issue a statement saying it had received “many inquiries from customers about games from other companies that were released in January 2024 claiming they are similar to Pokémon and asking us to confirm whether they are licensed by us.” “Our company does not permit the use of Pokémon in this game,” The Pokémon Company explained, also adding that “we will investigate any act of infringement of intellectual property rights related to Pokémon and take appropriate action.”

The ball is in Pocketpair’s court. At the moment, Pocketpair has not commented on the matter and we do not know what measures it will take. What we do know is that ‘Palworld’ has been a huge success. It is one of the best-selling games on Steam and, just a few months ago, it became something more than just a game. Pocketpair partners with Sony Music Entertainment and Aniplex to launch Palworld Entertainment, a company dedicated to “promoting Palworld’s licensing business, both domestically and internationally.” According to Sony:

“The joint venture will be responsible for developing the reach of the intellectual property and expanding commercial efforts, including global licensing and merchandising activities associated with ‘Palworld,’ outside of interactive gaming.”

A few months ago, after the Summer Game FestJohn “Bucky” Buckley, CM of Pocketpair, posted a tweet recounting his experience at the event, he said, “There’s one key takeaway from the SGF weekend that honestly surprised me. Palworld is still a bogeyman for some people. We’re obviously more than aware of all the Palworld talk that circulated at the launch: Palworld was built with AI (False). Palworld stole assets (False). Palworld is being sued (False).”

Now we will have to wait, because this will surely take a long time.

Cover image | Pocketpair

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