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Palworld developer claims it has no idea what Nintendo patents it infringed upon

In a statement regarding the lawsuit, Pocketpair suggested it intends to investigate Nintendo's claims and defend itself in court.

TJ Denzer

September 19, 2024 1:15 PM

Image via Pocketpair

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This last week, Nintendo finally strapped on its legal gloves and filed a lawsuit against Palworld developer company Pocketpair citing patent infringement, and now Pocketpair has returned in kind with a statement of its own. Simply put, the Palworld dev doesn’t know exactly what Nintendo is suing over yet because Nintendo hasn’t revealed the patents that were infringed upon. With that in mind, Pocketpair suggested it intends to meet Nintendo in court over Palworld and the supposed infringed patents.

Pocketpair posted its full statement to Nintendo’s lawsuit on the Palworld social media account this week. The statement suggests Pocketpair was blindsided, but will still meet Nintendo in court over the matter:

Regarding the Lawsuit

Yesterday, a lawsuit was filed against our company for patent infringement.

We have received notice of this lawsuit and will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement.

At this moment, we are unaware…

— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) September 19, 2024

How the case between Nintendo and Pocketpair plays out will be interesting to see. Palworld’s comparisons to Pokemon have been fairly heavy for a long time, but there are quite a few differences between the two games. If Nintendo is suggesting no one else can make monster catcher-like games, it would leave a lot of other titles in jeopardy as well, including Cassette Beasts, Ooblets, and TemTem, to name a few.

With the lawsuit filed, we’ll be watching for Nintendo to share what exactly its grievances are and what patents were infringed upon. Stay tuned for more details as this story continues.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.