Nintendo & The Pokémon Company Sue Makers Of "Palworld" Over Patent Infringement (Image/palworld)

Nintendo (a Japanese multinational video game company) and The Pokemon Company (a Japanese firm managing the Pokemon franchise) have filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, Inc. the producer of the popular survival adventure game “Palworld” on Wednesday. The lawsuit, filed with the Tokyo District Court claims that Palworld infringes on multiple patent rights owned by Nintendo and Pokemon. The companies announced the lawsuit saying that Palworld creators have violated rules over the patent, on Thursday.

Pokemon is finally suing Palworld over patent infringement.

Note the case is filed in Tokyo, as both Companies are headquartered there, so it will apply relevant Japanese law.

We’ll need to dive deeper into the facts but regardless of specifics, this will be bloody pic.twitter.com/w31cBEZUc9

— Legal Mindset (@TheLegalMindset) September 19, 2024

Earlier in January, The Pokemon Company announced that it would investigate and take action against any infringement of its intellectual property rights. Pocketpair Inc. has not responded to requests for comment. However, the lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop further infringement and compensation for damages.

It was said that this move comes after Pocketpair, Inc. announced a joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment and Aniplex Inc. to promote Palworld’s licensing business globally. The joint venture, Palworld Entertainment Inc., aims to expand the game’s reach worldwide and the partnership was established in July 2024.

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Palworld, often referred to as “Pokemon with guns”, has gained immense popularity since its release in mid-January which attracted over 25 million players within a month. The game allows players to capture and train cute creatures called “pals” using guns and it features over 100 Pokemon-like creatures. Players can also use Pals for food, manual labour in mines and factories, and other unusual tasks.

The game also achieved remarkable success selling  8 million units in its first six days of early access. It also reached an impressive 2 million concurrent players on Steam which has been marked as the second-highest-played game on the platform. The game had sold over 15 million units cementing its position as one of the best-selling PC games as of February 22, 2024.

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