Nintendo may have filed patents only to sue Palworld later
, by Thibaut
The future of Palworld may well be in jeopardy, as Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have decided to take Pocketpair to court. The Japanese studio is accused of infringing several patent rights. Some of these concern the capture of a monster by a character using an object, a la Poké Ball.
On this subject, Andrew Velzen, a partner working for the MBHB law firm, has speculated that Nintendo may have filed patents exclusively for the purpose of bringing a lawsuit against Palworld later on.
Indeed, Velzen revealed that the Japanese company filed four patent applications relating to the capture and control of in-game characters just after the release of Palworld. Since this application was made in Japan, the procedure was fast-tracked and granted relatively quickly.
The same applies to the United States, where Nintendo filed two similar patents with the USPTO in May 2024, four months after the launch of Pocketpair's title. Again, these documents concern a "capture object" and a "character fighting in a virtual space". A similar complaint could thus be filed on American ground.
So, the timing could point to Nintendo doing everything in its power to bring Pocketpair down following the commercial success of Palworld.
Source: gamesindustry.biz