Nintendo, the Japanese multinational video game company best known for its lineup of video games and video game hardware, including what will seemingly soon be a Nintendo Switch 2, may be considered a bully for suing Palworld developer Pocketpair over what it has alleged to be copyright infringement, according to the latest thoughts from Florian Mueller, an intellectual property expert. Mueller, who covers (or covered) software patents and more via his Foss Patents blog, states that this could be “nothing but bullying by a frustrated incumbent who hates a successful newcomer,” speculating that Nintendo doesn’t even own any valid patents that would prompt Pocketpair into ceasing its action-adventure survival game.
Mueller writes:
- “It looks like they are NOT suing over creative rights relating to how Palworld characters look, though that is what they originally appeared to be concerned about.”
- “Patents cover technical inventions, except for U.S. design patents. In Japan it appears that they don’t call design rights ‘patents’ and this means they must be suing over software patents that will have nothing to do with what Palworld looks like.”
- “Those could be patents on, for instance, 3D image rendering. Such techniques can be used to make something that looks like Pokémon and they can also be used to make something that looks like Warcraft.”
- “It’s unlikely that Nintendo owns any valid patents (meaning patents that Pocketpair couldn’t shoot down in court) that are so powerful as to prevent Pocketpair from making Palworld.”
The original word from Mueller:
Some have already asked me what I think of Nintendo's #patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld maker @PocketpairGames.
— Florian Mueller (@Florian4Gamers) September 19, 2024
This is tricky, but it may boil down to nothing but bullying by a frustrated incumbent who hates a successful newcomer.
It looks like they are NOT suing…
Pocketpair’s reaction to Nintendo’s lawsuit:
We have received notice of this lawsuit and will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement. At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details.
It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.