By: Ahmad Khan
TOKYO: Nintendo issued a lawsuit against the record-breaking indie game Palworld for patent infringement on Thursday.
The action is in line with Nintendo’s legal history, in which the company has filed lawsuits for fan made games as well as issued Digital Millennium Copyright Acts (DMCAs) against content creators. The only surprise to fans of Palworld is that it took this long.
OpenAI threatening to ban users for asking strawberry about its reasoning
After releasing on January 19, 2024, Palworld quickly became one of the most popular video games in the world, reaching over 1.8 million concurrent players within 24 hours. Within a month the game had over 25 million players.
Producer Pocketpair’s game featured creature designs that many believed could infringe on Nintendo’s copyright of one of their largest and most profitable franchises, Pokémon.
Soon after Palworld’s release, Nintendo issued a statement saying “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon.”
It seemed as though Palworld’s monster designs did enough to side step any legal action by Nintendo with no update of such action in the coming months. The belief was bolstered by a statement from Pocketpair CEO, Takuro Mizobe, who said Nintendo’s lawyers had not contacted their team.
News of the lawsuit comes only two months after Pocketpair established Palworld Entertainment Inc, a joint venture with Aniplex Inc and Sony Music Entertainment, and a day after CEO Mizobe clarified that the game would not be adopting a free-to-play model.
Global police sting topples ‘Ghost’ criminal messaging app
A joint statement from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company – released on Nintendo’s Japanese website – said the company “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.”