Following last week’s shock announcement Nintendo is suing Palworld maker Pocketpair for the infringement of “multiple patents rights”, an IP expert has claimed it’s “exceedingly plausible” Nintendo crafted its patent applications specifically to target Palworld.
Writing for Gamesindustry.biz, Andrew Velzen – an associate at law firm MBHB – started by summarising some of the intellectual property discoveries legal experts have made so far since word of Nintendo’s lawsuit surfaced last week, starting with four key patent applications highlighted by Japanese attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara.
These patent claims, explains Velzen, all relate to different aspects of catching and/or riding “combat characters, “airborne rideable characters”, and “field characters” using “player characters.” Notably, all four patent applications were filed onto pre-existing “parent” patents by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company the release of Palworld, and have ben accelerated to issuance using Japanese expedited examination procedures.
However, Velzen notes Nintendo didn’t stop there. The company also filed two similar patents with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in May 2024, again after the release of Palworld, and several months after The Pokémon Company announced it would be investigating whether Palworld infringes on any “intellectual property rights related to Pokémon”.