Pokémon Company and Nintendo sue Pal’s World developer Pocketpair in a Tokyo court for patent infringement, the companies jointly announced Wednesday. Pocketpair responded to the lawsuit in a press release, saying it was “not aware of the specific patents” it is accused of infringing. Without court documents — or details from The Pokémon Company — there’s no real way to know exactly what Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have in mind, but using patent violation (as opposed to copyright violation) means that this case probably does not concern creature designs.
Conversation around Pal’s World largely revolves around its Pokémon-like Pals, which indeed have similarities to Pokémon. Take KeywordFor example, Lamball. Its appearance is quite similar to Wooloo from Pokémon — and what’s more, both If early creatures to catch and battle. But Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s announcement on Thursday made no mention of copyright infringement; instead, it cited patent infringements, suggesting the lawsuit may be about similarities in game mechanics, not creatures.
Nintendo has a ton of patents all over the world, but this particular lawsuit is currently only pending in Japanese courts. Nintendo’s patents cover all sorts of technical processes it uses in its games, whether it’s information processes, game storage, controller intricacies, touchscreen exploit, shadows of figuresor game mechanics. It’s been months since Nintendo said it was investigating Pocketpair and Keywordand probably because they analyzed the game carefully to see what could apply, patent.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have a patent in Japan (and a pending application in the United States) that includes a key and fairly obvious mechanic of the Pokémon games — handle and the release of Pokémon — making it a likely subject of this lawsuit. (The original patent application is still pending in the U.S., sent back to the applicant on Aug. 13 under “nonfinal rejection,” meaning it’s not an dynamic patent.)
The patent uses complicated—but precise!—language to outline exactly what’s covered, including multiple drawings and charts to describe the processes that lead to the on-screen action. Here’s the official summary:
In the first mode, the aiming direction in the virtual space is determined by the second operation input, and the player character is forced to shoot in the aiming direction of the item that affects the field character deployed on the field in the virtual space based on the third operation input. In the second mode, the aiming direction is determined by the second operation input, and the player character is forced to shoot in the aiming direction of the fighting character who is fighting based on the third operation input.
The elementary line drawings show a person throwing a Poké Ball at dinosaurs and dragons. It is likely, but not confirmed, that this patent may appear in connection with Pal’s WorldThe Pal catch sequence looks very similar to the one in the Pokémon games AND in a patent application by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo: A person lines up a throw with a round target.and then throws the Pal ball right at the creature. When Pal is released into battle, everything happens in reverse — just like in the Pokémon games.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company as well At the end of August, another follow-up application was publishedrelating to Pokémon riding. Patent documents for Pokémon riding show a person riding a bird, a fish, a horse, and what appears to be a sloth climbing a rock. This one seems a bit less relevant to Pal’s World case; Pals’ ride doesn’t resemble any of the drawings, except perhaps a horse or a fish. But in both of these cases the drawings are supported by pages of details that describe precisely the situations and inputs—details that make them unique in the applicant’s eyes.
Kantan Games CEO and industry consultant Serkan Toto told 404 Media that it is likely that Nintendo will go “much more technical” with an infringement lawsuit. “Nintendo would dig through every single action in the game, probably reverse engineer it, and just find a way to sue these guys,” Toto said. Nintendo defendant The White Cat Project Colopl programmer for patent infringement in a five-year battle; this could be a good starting point for considering Pocketpair’s lawsuit. In that case, Nintendo cited five patents related to “touchscreen joystick functionality, multiplayer connectivity, sleep mode confirmation screens, character attacks based on touch input locations, and a shadow effect placed on characters hidden behind game geometry” by Pocket Gamer.Nintendo and Colopl settles lawsuit in 2021 for 3.3 billion yenaccording to Siliconera. In addition to that fee, it will also have to license Nintendo’s patents for the future.
But until Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, or Pocketpair shares information about the lawsuit, it all remains speculation. Nintendo informed the press “will refrain from commenting on matters related to the content of the lawsuit.” Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and Pocketpair did not respond to Polygon’s request for more details.
Update: This story has been updated to include additional context.
