Summary
- A patent attorney has narrowed down the list of potential candidates that could be central to Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair to 28 patents.
- Out of those, one particular intellectual property describing creature-capture mechanics was labeled as a "killer patent" that would be difficult not to infringe when making a game with monster-taming elements.
- The said property is part of a recently approved patent family consisting of three more patents, all of which were approved mere weeks before Nintendo and The Pokemon Company sued Pocketpair.
A Japanese IP attorney has narrowed down the potential patent candidates that could be at the center of Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair. His analysis also surfaced one particular patent family that he believes is particularly likely to be related to Nintendo's allegations against Palworld.
The Pokemon Company and Nintendo filed a joint lawsuit against Pocketpair on September 18, claiming that its hit survival crafting game is infringing on multiple patents. The companies did not elaborate on their allegations publicly after bringing their case in front of the Tokyo District Court.
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Attorney Narrows Down Potential Palworld Infringements to 28 Patents
Pocketpair subsequently said it was not informed of any patents that Palworld is allegedly infringing. But the list of likely candidates isn't particularly long, according to Japan-based patent attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara. In a recent interview with Yahoo News (as translated by Automation), Kurihara opined that, given how the lawsuit was jointly filed by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, the patents at the center of the case are plausibly owned by both parties. Based on this reasoning, the attorney narrowed down the list of possibilities to 28 patents.
Nintendo Has a 'Killer Patent' For Capturing Pokemon, Attorney Says
Looking at this remaining group, Kurihara highlighted Japanese patent number 7545191, which appears to be primarily centered on creature-catching mechanics. This patent was first submitted in late July 2024 and granted the following month, after Nintendo and The Pokemon Company asked for an accelerated review process. It's part of a slightly more comprehensive patent family that describes the process of aiming a capture item at a character and releasing it using two inputs, an analog stick and a button press. This triggers a check that determines whether the character's status should be changed to "owned by the player." The illustrations attached to the patent depict something resembling the Poke Ball Plus controller being used for the two required inputs.
Kurihara described this as a "killer patent" that covers a wide variety of use cases. "It seems like it would be hard to avoid if you want to make a Pokémon-like game, and it’s easy to infringe if you’re not careful," he explained. In a statement provided to The Best War Games, veteran patent analyst Florian Mueller said that patent number 7545191 being central to Nintendo's lawsuit against Pocketpair is "a plausible theory."
The request for an expedited review of patent number 7545191 also facilitated the approval of three other patents from Nintendo and The Pokemon Company (7528390, 7493117 and 7505854). Kurihara noted that amending an existing patent for specific litigation purposes is an established industry practice, and possibly what happened in this particular case. Two of those three divisional patents elaborate on some additional specifics of creature capture, while the remaining one describes a system for riding creatures, which is something that's also possible to do in Palworld.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 71 /100 Critics Rec: 58%
- Released
- January 19, 2024
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Violence
- Developer(s)
- Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Publisher(s)
- Pocket Pair, Inc.
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
- Xbox Series X|S, pc
WHERE TO PLAY
In this game, you can peacefully live alongside mysterious creatures known as Pals or risk your life to drive off a ruthless poaching syndicate. Pals can be used to fight and breed, or they can be made to work on farms or factories. You can even sell them or eat them.
Survival: In a harsh environment where food is scarce and vicious poachers roam, danger waits around every corner. To survive, you must tread carefully and make difficult choices...even if that means eating your own Pals when the time comes.
Mounts & Exploration: Pals can be mounted to traverse the land, sea and sky—allowing you to traverse all kinds of environment as you explore the world.
Collect all kinds of exciting Pals to fight, farm, build, and work for you in this completely new multiplayer, open world survival and crafting game!
- Cross Save
- yes
- Number of Players
- 1-4 (Co-Op); 32 Players Server Limit
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- yes
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Shooter, Survival
- How Long To Beat
- 36 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 6 GB (February 2024)
