Last week, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced that they were filing a patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair. While the latter studio claimed it was "unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon," online speculation soon began to throw out various plausible-sounding submissions from Nintendo's back catalogue.
While there's still no official word on which designs are relevant to this case, MBHB law firm associate Andrew Velzen has noted (via GamesIndustry.biz) that some seemingly key patents were in fact filed after Palworld's release, suggesting Nintendo has been on the lawsuit drive for a while.
Velzen highlights four specific Japanese-submitted patents (from the 28 nominated by a patent attorney for Automaton Media) which he believes are crucial to Nintendo's infringement argument. These seem to cover large topics like catching and riding various characters, and, importantly, they were all submitted after Palworld was released.
The filing process for each of these Japanese designs was sped up through what Velzen calls "expedited examination procedures", meaning the patents could hold water sooner and, potentially, be used in a legal setting.
These have each been submitted as divisionals of existing Nintendo patents, spinning out from a "parent patent" that the company has already claimed as its own. In this instance, the "parent" was filed in December 2021 and is legally viable for use against Palworld (according to Automaton Media).
Four seemingly corresponding patents were submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (making them legal in North America as well as Japan) and while two of these were filed in September 2022 — before Palworld — the remaining two first appeared in May 2024, following Palworld's release.
These two independent claims (U.S. App. No. 18/652,874 and App. No. 18/652,883) read as follows:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a game program that when executed by a computer of an information processing apparatus, causes the computer to perform operations comprising: based on a received direction input, determining an aiming direction in a virtual space; and in a first mode, causing a player character to launch, in the aiming direction, a catching item for catching the field character disposed on a field in the virtual space, based on an operation input, and when the catching item launched hits the field character, performing successful-catch determination relating to whether or not the catching is successful; and when the result of the successful-catch determination is positive, setting the field character hit by the catching item in a player's possession, and in a second mode, causing the player character to launch, in the aiming direction, a fighting character, and causing the field character and the fighting character to start fighting against each other on the field.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a game program causing a computer of an information processing apparatus to provide execution comprising: controlling a player character in a virtual space based on a first operation input; in association with selecting, based on a selection operation, a boarding object that the player character can board and providing a boarding instruction, causing the player character to board the boarding object and bringing the player character into a state where the player character can move, wherein the boarding object is selected among a plurality of types of objects that the player character owns; in association with providing a second operation input when the player character is in the air, causing the player character to board an air boarding object and bringing the player character into a state where the player character can move in the air; and while the player character is aboard the air boarding object, moving the player character, aboard the air boarding object, in the air based on a third operation input.
There's a lot of legal patent speak going on in there, but the first appears to relate directly to a catching/releasing mechanic, while the second is more about riding on ground or air-based creatures.
Like the Japanese examples, these two US patents were filed with 'Track One' requests, similarly speeding up the examination process.
Now, without any official confirmation, we can't know for sure that these designs will play a part in the Palworld lawsuit nor that they were submitted with the sole intention of taking on Pocketpair. That said, seeing that some of them were filed after Palworld's release and their relevance to mechanics like Pokéballs/Pal Spheres and riding on Pokémon/Pals, it sure seems to suggest that Nintendo was gearing up for something.
Velzen notes that both patents outlined above are still yet to be approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office — the former being rejected for "lacking subject matter eligibility" and the latter for "obviousness". Nintendo now has a chance to amend both (or contend the rejections) by 19th and 31st October respectively. Should the company be successful in getting both across the line, there is every chance they will have a part to play in the case against Pocketpair.
Looking at these submissions, it certainly seems like Nintendo has been prepping its argument for a while. Games analyst Serkan Toto recently claimed (via 404 Media) that he's certain Nintendo will come out of the lawsuit on top, while others like business lawyer Richard Hoeg suggested that the company "may be reaching".
Whatever the outcome, the lawsuit is seemingly already affecting Pocketpair. Just this week, the company's Palworld PS5 release was halted in certain countries, and while no specific reason was provided for the delay, it certainly seems pretty lawsuit-y to us.