Nintendo and The Pokémon Company vs. Pocket Pair: Understanding the details

• Palworld may bare similarities to Pokémon but this could be deemed as incidental
• Proving patent infringement is a difficult task and as the product must contain all features of the patent

This article was written by Futura Digital co-founder Alexandra Kurdyumova and associate Evgenia Shikholeva.

On 19th September, Nintendo officially announced that they, along with The Pokémon Company, filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against the creators of Palworld for patent infringement.

Brief overview

Palworld is an adventure game developed by the Japanese studio Pocket Pair, released in early access in early 2024. The game is set in an open world inhabited by animal-like creatures.

Many fans immediately noticed similarities between the creatures in Palworld and the famous Pokémon. The game even earned an unofficial nickname – “Pokémon with guns”.

Why aren’t they alleging copyright infringement?

Interestingly, Nintendo is not claiming copyright infringement but focusing on patent rights instead. It is well-known that the game and its elements are protected by copyright, and it seems that Nintendo could accuse Palworld of copying their character, Pokémon.

In our view, the company’s decision not to cite copyright infringement appears to be deliberate. Proving copyright violation would be challenging: The worlds and character designs are significantly different, and the similarities might only be incidental.

The game seems more inspired by Pokémon rather than directly copying its art. However, proving patent infringement is also no simple task.

What are patents in games?

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s primary claim revolves around patent rights. Patents protect inventions, and the possibility of patenting elements of a video game is limited. In practice, game mechanics are most often patented, but even this is achieved by only a few companies. Here are some examples:

• Nemesis System: In 2021, Warner Bros. patented the Nemesis System, a core mechanic in the Shadow of War and Shadow of Mordor games. This system allows regular enemy orcs to evolve based on their interactions with the player. For example, if an orc survives, it becomes stronger, gains new abilities, and might even remember past battles when encountering the player again.

• Dual-Reality Gameplay: In The Medium, the player controls a character who simultaneously operates in both the real world and the spirit world. The developer, Bloober Team, patented this “dual-reality gameplay.” The patent covers the simultaneous control of characters across multiple virtual worlds.

What is known about the Pokémon company’s patents?

Unfortunately, the specific patents referenced by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are not yet clear. This is also echoed by Palworld: “we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon”.

Currently, we know that the plaintiff companies own several patents that may apply to this case. For example, several Japanese patents were approved in August 2024, and applications for the same patents were submitted in the US in 2024.

What are these patents?

• A system allowing players to interact with characters in virtual space (patent No. 7545191 in Japan). The patent describes how the player can determine the aiming direction and launch objects or combat characters in that direction.

• Transition between ground and air movement (patent No. 7545191 in Japan). The patent explains the automatic switching of a character from the air to the ground when approaching the ground and vice versa.

It’s possible that these patents are the ones Nintendo considers infringed by Palworld. But further details remain to be seen.

What’s next?

It’s important to note that winning a patent dispute is no easy task. To prove direct infringement, it’s necessary to show that the product contains all the features and limitations specified in the patent claim. If even one element is missing, the plaintiff cannot win the case.

We still have to see how the dispute will unfold, but there are already some concerns: the patents cover fundamental game mechanics used by many companies. If The Pokémon Company manages to win, it could set a precedent allowing competitors to be removed by citing patent infringement.

There are already known cases of successful lawsuits over patent infringement on game mechanics. For example, in 2019, Capcom won a case against Koei Tecmo in the Intellectual Property High Court of Japan. The violations involved two patents: one for controller vibration warning players about nearby enemies and another for unlocking bonus content using discs from previous games.

It’s also noteworthy that Pokémon has previously been at the centre of a patent dispute. In 2022, the company K.Mizra won a lawsuit in Germany against Niantic.

The court ruled that Niantic’s Pokémon Go, developed with support from The Pokémon Company, infringed the plaintiff’s patent. The contested patent simplified the interaction between devices to allow users to participate in multiplayer mode.

We’ll have to wait and see how the dispute between Nintendo and Pocket Pair ends, but it’s certainly one to follow closely!