Japanese patent law expert says Nintendo may have strengthened its claims specifically to target Palworld
Sep. 24, 2024Many of Nintendo’s patents were registered after Palworld’s launch
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Nintendo may have strengthened specific patents in order to make itsPalworld lawsuitmore legally robust.
Analysisfrom a Japanese legal firm specializing in patent law (viaAutomaton Media) concludes that “patents established before the release of Palworld did not necessarily correspond to the mechanics of Palworld,” while patents submitted after Palworld launched into early access earlier this year “worked to improve this.”
Nintendo owns two groups of patents that the analysis suggests are those it will argue Palworld developer Pocketpair has infringed on. Both groups relate specifically to Pokemon: Legends Arceus, and focus on throwing balls to capture creatures in an open world, and the ability to use a kind of mount in order to get around the world on a creatures' back.
Of the eight patents and two pending patents in those two groups, however, the analysis states that only three - one from the first group and two from the second - were registered before Palworld’s release. That suggests that Nintendo could have played Palworld, identified any similarities, and then focused in on specific areas in order to increase the strength of its claim.
Sadly, it might be some time before we get a final verdict,as the lawsuit is “more likely” to take 5 years to conclude.
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I’m GamesRadar’s news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I’ve run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam’s latest indie hit.
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