Nintendo and The Pokemon Company File Lawsuit Against Palworld Developer

Pocketpair is being sued over its "Pokemon With Guns" game, Palworld.

By Logan Moore

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have filed a joint lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developer of Palworld, alleging that the studio has infringed "multiple patent rights." Following the release of Palworld at the start of 2024, The Pokemon Company released a statement that said it would be investigating the game and would "take appropriate measures" if it found that the game infringed upon the Pokemon IP. Since then, The Pokemon Company had said nothing else on the matter, which made it seem as though it wouldn't be filing any litigation against Palworld. Now, that has quickly changed. 

In a message posted on Nintendo's official website, the publisher revealed that it has filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair in the Tokyo District Court. Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are together looking for "compensation for damages" that it says Palworld has made against patents that the two corporations own. Nintendo says it is particularly filing this lawsuit as a means of protecting both the company's brand and the IP that it has cultivated. 

"Nintendo Co., Ltd., together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. on September 18, 2024," reads the statement on Nintendo's website. "This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights. Nintendo will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years."

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Since it was first revealed multiple years ago, Palworld immediately drew comparisons to Pokemon as it was yet another monster-catching game that featured survival and shooting mechanics. Some of the "Pals" in Palworld, though, were seen by fans are being almost too similar in nature to some of the most popular Pokemon that have appeared in the Nintendo franchise over the years. Clearly, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company felt the same and now feel as though they have a case to make in court. 

At the time of this writing, Pocketpair hasn't released a message of its own responding to this lawsuit. When and if that changes, we'll be sure to update you here on ComicBook. 

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