The gaming community is still reacting to the big news that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developer behind Palworld. What is interesting about the lawsuit is that it is not about copyright infringement, but patent infringement. Nintendo and The Pokemon Company say that Palworld “infringes multiple patent rights,” but they don’t mention which ones specifically.
Well, patent attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara may have figured it out. Kurihara recently spoke with Yahoo Japan, where he talks about a patent, filed in 2021, that details a way for players to capture creatures they encounter, which would result in the creature being theirs. It refers to how players look towards a “field character” in front of them, release a “grab item” that hits that “field character”, and if they catch it, the creature then belongs to them.
The patent is apparently related to Pokemon’s Pokeballs, though it’s worth noting that the patent’s setup seems to be specifically reminiscent of the way you catch Pokemon in Legends Arceus, which was released in 2022, rather than the traditional Pokemon games that have been released for decades. Palworld seems to have similarities to Legends Arceus’ creature capture style. Because of this, Kurihara mentions that while it may not be the only patent that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are citing in their lawsuit, it may be the one that ultimately prompted both companies to take action. Kurihara calls him a “killer patient.”
Thanks to Paidenthusiast for the tip!
