Nintendo Patents Filed After Palworld's Release Suggest Lawsuit Prep Started Months Ago

Pika your battles

by · Nintendo Life
Image: Pocketpair

Last week, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced that they were filing a patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair. While the latter studio claimed it was "unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon," online speculation soon began to throw out various plausible-sounding submissions from Nintendo's back catalogue.

While there's still no official word on which designs are relevant to this case, MBHB law firm associate Andrew Velzen has noted (via GamesIndustry.biz) that some seemingly key patents were in fact filed after Palworld's release, suggesting Nintendo has been on the lawsuit drive for a while.

Velzen highlights four specific Japanese-submitted patents (from the 28 nominated by a patent attorney for Automaton Media) which he believes are crucial to Nintendo's infringement argument. These seem to cover large topics like catching and riding various characters, and, importantly, they were all submitted after Palworld was released.

The filing process for each of these Japanese designs was sped up through what Velzen calls "expedited examination procedures", meaning the patents could hold water sooner and, potentially, be used in a legal setting.

These have each been submitted as divisionals of existing Nintendo patents, spinning out from a "parent patent" that the company has already claimed as its own. In this instance, the "parent" was filed in December 2021 and is legally viable for use against Palworld (according to Automaton Media).

Four seemingly corresponding patents were submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (making them legal in North America as well as Japan) and while two of these were filed in September 2022 — before Palworld — the remaining two first appeared in May 2024, following Palworld's release.

These two independent claims (U.S. App. No. 18/652,874 and App. No. 18/652,883) read as follows:

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a game program that when executed by a computer of an information processing apparatus, causes the computer to perform operations comprising: based on a received direction input, determining an aiming direction in a virtual space; and in a first mode, causing a player character to launch, in the aiming direction, a catching item for catching the field character disposed on a field in the virtual space, based on an operation input, and when the catching item launched hits the field character, performing successful-catch determination relating to whether or not the catching is successful; and when the result of the successful-catch determination is positive, setting the field character hit by the catching item in a player's possession, and in a second mode, causing the player character to launch, in the aiming direction, a fighting character, and causing the field character and the fighting character to start fighting against each other on the field.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a game program causing a computer of an information processing apparatus to provide execution comprising: controlling a player character in a virtual space based on a first operation input; in association with selecting, based on a selection operation, a boarding object that the player character can board and providing a boarding instruction, causing the player character to board the boarding object and bringing the player character into a state where the player character can move, wherein the boarding object is selected among a plurality of types of objects that the player character owns; in association with providing a second operation input when the player character is in the air, causing the player character to board an air boarding object and bringing the player character into a state where the player character can move in the air; and while the player character is aboard the air boarding object, moving the player character, aboard the air boarding object, in the air based on a third operation input.

There's a lot of legal patent speak going on in there, but the first appears to relate directly to a catching/releasing mechanic, while the second is more about riding on ground or air-based creatures.

Like the Japanese examples, these two US patents were filed with 'Track One' requests, similarly speeding up the examination process.

Now, without any official confirmation, we can't know for sure that these designs will play a part in the Palworld lawsuit nor that they were submitted with the sole intention of taking on Pocketpair. That said, seeing that some of them were filed after Palworld's release and their relevance to mechanics like Pokéballs/Pal Spheres and riding on Pokémon/Pals, it sure seems to suggest that Nintendo was gearing up for something.

Velzen notes that both patents outlined above are still yet to be approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office — the former being rejected for "lacking subject matter eligibility" and the latter for "obviousness". Nintendo now has a chance to amend both (or contend the rejections) by 19th and 31st October respectively. Should the company be successful in getting both across the line, there is every chance they will have a part to play in the case against Pocketpair.

Looking at these submissions, it certainly seems like Nintendo has been prepping its argument for a while. Games analyst Serkan Toto recently claimed (via 404 Media) that he's certain Nintendo will come out of the lawsuit on top, while others like business lawyer Richard Hoeg suggested that the company "may be reaching".

Whatever the outcome, the lawsuit is seemingly already affecting Pocketpair. Just this week, the company's Palworld PS5 release was halted in certain countries, and while no specific reason was provided for the delay, it certainly seems pretty lawsuit-y to us.

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What do you make of this latest development? Let us know in the comments.

[source gamesindustry.biz]

About Jim Norman

Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since.

Comments 91

Yep, illegal lawfare. I really hope it bites them in the butt for a hefty sum of millions. Perhaps then they will stop using intimidation through lawyers and suing everyone left and right and making the wider gaming community despise anything Nintendo.

Just enough rope! Knew that was gonna happen when they were in a holding pattern initially.

They are patenting capturing characters in a field and flying mounts — actually boarding any flying object. Just absolutely disgusting behavior. You can like Nintendo's games — I know I do — and still feel absolute revulsion at the implication of patenting mechanics so broadly and vaguely. I can only hope that if they win with this, one of the actual sharks in the water smells blood and completely destroys them in court. I won't even be sad. This is the kind of dubious thuggery that they deserve to go bust over, and there are players that can outspend them easily.

Riding monsters you've caught is not a Nintendo thing by any means, and considering that some of these patents were filed after Palworld's release is simply disrespectful.

I hope Nintendo loses this. Palworld is a much better game than any Pokémon game released in recent times and the sales prove it. Hopefully this will encourage Game Freak to make better games, I have high hopes for ZA.

So they are trying to indirectly patent riding horses in games? Or is it just fictional creatures you can't ride in which case dragons are off limits?

I have extreme disgust for the genre as a whole, but I think this has provoked me to side with Pocketpair, mostly because I want Nintendo to stop being stupid and gain back lost respect from the gaming community.

These both describe multiple monster collecting games.

I have really no clue what's going on here exactly; I strongly dislike Palworld because of the gun mechanic and how confusing it is.. but enough to want it to disappear? No.

Why is Nintendo going after them and not, say, Level 5 for Ni no Kuni's Familiar catching mechanic or Bandai for the Digimon capturing mechanic? Perhaps because they use completely different methods? I dunno, lol.

I don't see how you can sue someone for breaching a patent that did not exist when they created their product. We will eventually get the details and find out which patents Nintendo is suing for.

If indeed those patents are part of the lawsuit, I can see this being an attempt by Nintendo to get access to Palworld dev assets as part of the lawsuit and figure out if they were illegally made from Pokemon (be it using the pokemon assets and editing them or pokemon trained AI).

@Madao oh boy, using Pokemon assets?

That is gonna go well. And yeah we don't know if this is the patent in question. I assume Japanese courts cannot say anything until the trial happens which will take 4 to 5 years.

@Maubari My guess is because of the guns mechanics and people call the game "Pokemon with guns."

...wow. Commenters so far are AGAINST Nintendo here? Must be coming from other websites 😂

@ikki5 Yep, sure are! And there won't ever be again if Nintendo gets its way!

@Maubari My guess is the fact that it sold 12 million copies. No money up for grabs, no lawsuit. (Unless you're a fan, of course. Then they'll sue you on general principle.)

@Maubari might be different methods. Or the same way but they coded it differently in which they can bypass the patent

After this I'm now hoping Pocket Pair win the case, how can you take legal action on a game that came out before you filed for the patents? That's like me filing the gliding mechanic and then taking Nintendo to court for using it in Zelda.

Yeah... this is downright ugly, no matter how creatively bankrupt Pocketpair is, unless these are resubs of previous patents, this is super sketchy and gross.

...Nah, it's gross regardless. Stuff this vague shouldn't be patent-able in the first place. Ugh.

@ThatGuyWho Then ill help even out the battlefield by joining team Nintendo. Gooo Nintendooo!

...Isn't this case unfolding in the Japanese court system, since both Nintendo and Pocketpair are based in Japan? Why would US patents be relevant to the case? I'm not an expert, but people I've seen touch on this say that this case won't be playing out in the US, and that Nintendo would have no standing trying to use patents registered after Palworld's release anyways. (Did see a throwaway line about the patents supposedly being filed for a few years ago in Japan, but I have no idea how true that is...) I don't know. I'm still just plain confused because of all the misinformation that's been circulating.

@anoyonmus That might be it; In Digimon Story, you have to keep fighting to slowly ''analyze'' the creature before you can download it (in game of course) and let it join your team.
For Ni no Kuni, you just have to let a girl named Esther play a harp to charm one of the creatures to come with you - but only if they have little hearts above their head.

So yeah, I think it might be completely different enough to bypass the patent.
But even then, the Nexomon games should've gotten a lawsuit as well..

@ThatGuyWho @DripDropCop146 Okay, so what is your reasoning that Nintendo is in the right here?

@Maubari That's probably why. Difference between a patent and copyright is pretty distinct. Copyright is talked about way more in general in reference to video games.

Copyright in general is about protecting expressions of ideas held by a rightsholder. Patents on the other hand require technical details of processes of production or how things work to be valid.

I find the love/hate relationship many Nintendo fans have with the company quite weird and telling.

@Madao Patents filed after the Palworld release seem to be useless unless they claim priority from an earlier application (the patents would be treated as having that earlier date) or Palworld introduced features after its release and after the patent filing dates.

@ThatGuyWho The problem is the wording of these patents basically affects nearly any creature capturing game and someone them, creature games in general, especially when it comes to riding them. I love Nintendo games and their products, but I don't agree with this, especially with how broad these are. The USA rejected them already and now they have to amend them to get a chance to try again because of how broad they were.

@Jiggies oh really? Weird and telling how?

Care to elaborate?

I'm waiting for official confirmation, but if this were the case it would be absolutely ridiculous even leaving aside the discussion about patenting game mechanics (which I also find disgusting) for a moment, not even most laws are retroactive and you're telling me that somehow patents are?!

@easykiel question is did Nintendo apply for the application much much earlier?

@anoyonmus Someone said most commenters here are against Nintendo, so Im evening that out by being for Nintendo.

The universe requires balance.

Hope this was an eye opener to the people that went “why did they only do this NOW?” in the last article.

@PikaPhantom Well yes, the court case is taking place in Japan so patents filed in the US would have no effect there afaik.

@DripDropCop146 LOL

I agree with the catching mechanic, it’s iconic now, but the second patent is too broad and vague. Maybe Nintendo knows that and simply needed to have a second point to take it to court?

We do not know which patents in question it is. They may or may not be resubs of previous patents like what @easykiel said. I would rather instead of all arguing about this, why not wait for official confirmation on this?

I sincerely hope Nintendo pays dearly for this.

This really tell me as I mentioned many times before, this looks very weak to use it in a lawsuit, showing, as I mentioned, that Nintendo never wanted to lawsuit this game and they so this more for obligation rated for protection of its IPs, specially because....

@ikki5
This!!! ^
I play a game in smartphones: Monster super League, and yes, it has a catching mechanics where the character uses "Astrocoins" (because the creatures here are called Astromon), and exactly the same catching scene: the character launch the astrocoin (well, here use a "gun" as launcher), el coin absorb the Astromon, the coin rotates trying capture the Astromon, if successful, the astrocoin bright and return to the character; if fail, the Astromon reappear in its site..
Again, yes, exactly, as Pokemon and any videogame Monster catching.

I hope it's possible for people to financially support Pocketpair's case. I don't know how Japanese laws work but Pocketpair needs all the help they can get against these monsters. Nintendo has completely lost it and has brought the ire of the entire community against them. Truly narcissistic, petty, greedy, and psychotic behavior from them. Iwata must be rolling in his grave at this point; this isn't the Nintendo he and Reggie envisioned.

@anoyonmus The automaton link says they stem from a 2021 patent, so yeah, their legal date is 2021

@easykiel where is this link?

@anoyonmus Up in the article, automaton media. It says "As the parent patent of these four divisional patents was registered in December 2021, they are legally effective against Palworld, which launched in January this year. "

If the patent Nintendo is suing about is after Palword's release then I don't see Nintendo winning this but if Ninty could point to patent that exist before Palworld's release then they would had a much better chance of success. We're see how Pocket Pair fight in their defense.

This is why it is NOT smart to blindly side with Nintendo. The biggest losers will be the gamers if Nintendo wins.

@Serpenterror actually, @easykiel might have a point here. In the article NintendoLife posted another article from automaton media. The parent patent of the 4 divisional patents were registered in December of 2021. Palworld came out in January 2024. Meaning this is technically legally effective.

@easykiel thank you for pointing this out, I feel most people here missed this (Including me!!!)

@Serpenterror @Madao @easykiel

So, from my understanding of the video I watched regarding this - which my understanding could be wrong as it's complicated - the reason is because these mechanics are like addendums of an older patent.

And because those addendums were approved, they are now part of an older patent Nintendo already had on the books - as if they were always there to begin with!

Basically...exploiting patent law loopholes.

@easykiel https://automaton-media.com/en/news/whats-the-killer-patent-nintendo-is-suing-palworld-for-japanese-patent-attorney-offers-in-depth-analysis/

The parent patent for this 4 divisional patents was filed in December 2021. One month before Legends Arceus released, way before Palworld was even released. So if this was the patent in question, this is legally effective against Palworld.

@GamingFan4Lyf NintendoLife conveniently and for some reason left out one key detail. And it is from that article that they posted.

While it is true these 4 divisional patents were filed after Palworld launched, however these are divisional patents. The "parent" patent for these 4 divisional patents was filed in December 2021. So I think this means these 4 2024 patents what are now under the 2021 patent are legally 2021 patents. Thats what I think it is. Or maybe I am wrong.

But it is legally effective against Palworld.

@DripDropCop146 Always strange to see people leaping up, screaming, just BEGGING to call themselves out. The internet could use less of that.

@Jiggies Oh, it's not love/hate. It's pure, unconditional love. Just ask them when the Switch 2 is revealed. They'll forget the hate ever existed.

@easykiel does this mean the 4 divisional 2024 patents are counted as a 2021 patent essentially?

@GamingFan4Lyf and legally against Palworld. Yup. They have a strong case over there. But you sumed it up quite nicely.

Have to admit, that is actually pretty complicated but quite smart as well.

I’m absolutely no law expert, but filing after its release - could that even be valid an argument in court as it’s done after the fact? Wouldn’t it be like Cities Skylines releasing then EA filing a patent on City Building game designs (as they own Sim City) after Cities Skylines release, then going after them in court? ( random example I know)

@ozwally its actually divisional patents that were filed and approved of this year. But these divisional patents are part of a parent patent that was approved in 2021. Essentially meaning these divisional patents are legally there since 2021.

Thus, legally effective against Palworld.

@anoyonmus Smart, but also incredible scummy!

Like, how can an addendum time warp?!

And what does this now mean for any other game out there with similar mechanics - but for developers who didn't "disrespect" Nintendo?

It should be that if any addendum is added, the date of the original Patent should get moved to date of addendum to prevent an addendum to be used as a weapon against another company.

Or the conditions of the addendum aren't legally binding until after the date they were approved for the original Patent.

Now maybe that's how Patent law works in other countries - as far as I know this is in Japan only - but this rollback thing just seems dirty.

Even as a big time Nintendo fan, i hope it costs them alot.
For now i am standing with the Pall devs.
And if you guys win, bring the game on switch 2.
Will help you guys to advertise for free.

@GamingFan4Lyf You and I do not make the laws of the US or Japanese legal system.

It is legal to patent game mechanics whether you think it is scummy or not. WB did this with their Nemesis System. And this is also legal with the parent patent and such.

You cannot blame Nintendo or WB or any game company for patenting game mechanics, but rather the governments who allow such laws that allow game companies to patent game mechanics.

If these developers have the same mechanics BUT CODED differently, they would be by passing this patent most likely. If they were using the exact same code for copying these mechanics, then they are on radar.

It also doesn't help with the fact that the PocketPair CEO did state they don't really like being creative and like to chase trends and essentially don't mind copying from other games. One of their games pretty much rips off Hollow Knight.

And also to note, Nintendo would have ignored this if people hadn't started tagging them about this and also if people and I think PocketPair didn't market the game as "Pokemon with guns".

So they think patents retroactively filed after Palworld released is a more effective case than the obviously plagiarized designs? LOL okay. Pocketpair is scummy as hell, but this is the wrong legal avenue to pursue and also makes Nintendo look scummy. Methinks everyone's going to end up a loser in this case.

@anoyonmus ah right I see, thanks for the clarification! It seemed odd at first glance

Let's not jump to conclusions here. SUGGESTING =/= CONFIRMING.
Let's wait and see where this story leads before nailing anyone to the cross.
Personally I still don't care who ends up winning and losing but it looks to me like people are jumping the gun a bit too much on this.

@GamingFan4Lyf Yeah, it's a bit loophole-y, but it's not ridiculous. If you file a divisional or claim priority from an older application, the thing that you claim (have legal protection for) has to have actually been present somewhere in the original older application. The benefit for the applicant (Nintendo here) is that maybe they wrote down a great idea, but didn't realise it was worth having legal protection for. Then someone else (Palworld) comes along later and puts that idea into practice. It's maybe not fair on Nintendo that they told the world about the idea first, and now Palworld are making money off it. So the divisional allows them to get protection for that eariler idea they've already told the world about.

The drawback of the system is that Palworld have have done their homework to make sure they weren't going to infringe any patents with their game, and then suddenly one appears after their release. It's just a balance of different party's rights.

Depending on the region, you might have just a few years to be able to file a divisional, so everyone else won't be scared of suddenly being sued 20 years down the line.

Key here is that a divisional patent uses the parent patent’s specification. So any claims in the new divisional filings would have to be described in that 2021 filing.

@MegaChem and these divisional patents are legally "there" since 2021. As if they were there all this time.

@anoyonmus Correct, I see this as highlighting additional inventions contained in the first patent.

@RygelXVIII The broad definitions may be their downfall. In Japan you can countersue on this ground and get the patent stricken down entirely.

My big qualm with this is that there’s been plenty of other Pokemon-inspired games before this. Why target Palworld in particular?

I'm rooting for Nintendo on this. You can't make Wooloo firing machine guns and not expect a lawsuit. If the Palworld folks were honestly just trying to make there own game, there a million better ways to have gone about it. See: the dozens of Pokemon-esque franchises that never got in any trouble at all, and in fact are happily sold on Nintendo platforms.

@easykiel "The benefit for the applicant (Nintendo here) is that maybe they wrote down a great idea, but didn't realise it was worth having legal protection for. Then someone else (Palworld) comes along later and puts that idea into practice. It's maybe not fair on Nintendo that they told the world about the idea first, and now Palworld are making money off it. So the divisional allows them to get protection for that eariler idea they've already told the world about."

I guess I run on the "tough luck" school of thinking. If you didn't think to patent it at the time and someone else uses it, then that's on you!

Better luck next time!
No participation trophy for you!

It's not fair to the applicant.
It's also not fair to the person using it because it wasn't illegal for someone else to use. It shouldn't retroactively become illegal because applicant didn't bother "owning it" the first time.

Now, any new product that comes AFTER addendum, I can get behind. But not anything before.

@Chocobo_Shepherd Except this has nothing to do with the designs of the monsters. The game is nothing like any Pokémon game really out there aside from the collection of monsters and using them for battle.

How the heck is it fair to sue them over a patent that wasn’t an issue nor existed when they made and released the game? I hope Nintendo loses.

@Bolt_Strike actually these patents are part of a parent patent filed in 2021. Meaning these patents filed this year are legally "there" since 2021. Meaning legally effective against Palworld.

And they're not going for copyright as Palworld managed to narrowly avoid that. The automedia article NL posted mentions it.

@Snatcher technically and legally, these 4 patents were there since 2021 since these 4 patents are part of 1 parent patent that was filed in 2021. Thus legally effective against Palworld.

We don't know much about the case so this is all just speculation and conjecture. I doubt most people here (me included) even know the patent system well enough to comment about it.

As far as I know, patents in US do not have anything to do with a case set in Japan. This article talks about patents that were filed in US after the release of Palworld. But when were they filed in Japan? That's what matters.

@ThatGuyWho Exactly what I was saying when these articles started. Like why is anyone here if they clearly hate Nintendo?

@KoopaTheGamer This article explains it.

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/whats-the-killer-patent-nintendo-is-suing-palworld-for-japanese-patent-attorney-offers-in-depth-analysis/

@Jiggies You’d think everyone utterly hates Nintendo in this comment section…

@DripDropCop146 Why, you, my friend! You're calling yourself out! You're right up there with everyone on Twitter agreeing with Mr "I'm a Black ****!" 😂

(Edit: there were some other replies here but they were pretty worthless so I'm deleting them. I only left the last one cuz Drip already replied.)

@anoyonmus you're right, I should have made things clearer in the initial article! I've added a section now noting the "parent patent" being filed in 2021 - thank you for pointing this out!

@ThatGuyWho I don't keep with up twitter. Anyways glad you enjoyed the joke.

@IceClimbersMain While I haven't played Palworld, I don't think video game sales are in direct correlation with quality of the game. I think big part of Palworld's success is the "shock" of seeing Pokémon-like characters with guns, and it certainly helps that there aren't many monster catching games on PC/Xbox. Then there's also GamePass which helped.

Now, recent Pokémon games certainly have had their share of issues, and the series has definitely dropped in quality over time. But I don't think sales are a good meter for quality.

@retrokid104 Because it was mainstream popular, everyone was talking about it. And another monster game being hot for 15 minutes scared them with the current opinion of the series.

@KoopaTheGamer while it is true Pokemon games have dropped in quality (Arceus was actually good afaik tho), the fact it is Pokemon brings a lot of sales. Brand recognition.

@JimNorman no problem.

If the patents weren’t filed until “after” Palworlds release then Nintendo doesn’t have much of a legal leg to stand on.

@GameOtaku except Nintendo does since the parent patent was filed in 2021. And these 4 divisional patents are part of the parent patent so legally those 4 divisional patents are "technically and legally" were there since 2021.

I would like Nintendo to win this. I'm not invested in the case or anything and I ultimately don't care, it's just that it's the more amusing outcome to me personally.

So here is something I need to look into and wondered about. When did Pocket Pair add catching monsters in their last game Craftopia? Was it a back port from Palworld to it?

@KoopaTheGamer nah there have been a few Monster Catching games that isn't Pokemon on other consoles and PC. TemTem was like a more recent 'blowup', others more of the classic old school pokemon look. Nexomon has a 3rd game in the works that is going 3D. Heck World of Final Fantasy was a Vita game now that I think about it.

@Borderlineland

That's pretty dramatic. Pretty sure at least 70 or 80% of Nintendo gamers really don't care for this lawsuit - whether Nintendo wins or not. The online community obviously does - but outside, in the real world and for casual gamers? I think not.
I'm personally neither a hater or a fanboy- i'm just confused by the whole ordeal haha

@GameOtaku Yeah this situation reminds me of the Stellar Blade lawsuit that Sony got sued on by a company called Stellarblade the past 4 days ago. Similar to this one, on that one the Stellarblade guy didn't register his company trademark until many months after Shift Up released their Stellar Blade game et he's suing them anyways thinking he'll get the upper hands.

https://www.ign.com/articles/stellarblade-trademark-lawsuit-sony-shift-up

@Maubari Nintendo is a global icon who's reach far extends beyond the gaming community. The community may hate them with a passion, but that's only a small part of the community.

Outside of that, Nintendo's reputation will be fine. Not even a scratch.

@anoyonmus I mean I'm not a lawyer, but I don't really see how they managed to narrowly avoid copyright infringement. They don't pass the eye test, with multiple design elements clearly lifted from Pokemon designs, and the CEO has brazenly admitted to using A.I. and maliciously wanting to copy other people's ideas. I think they have a strong case that Pocketpair just took Pokemon's models, put them into an A.I. algorithm, and spit out designs that copy Pokemon's ideas with little to no attempt at originality. That seems like a clear violation to me.

It's testament to how ingrained into popular culture Pokemon is that folk think throwing a ball and an animal shrinks to fit inside it is 'standard' to the point of anyone should be able to do it hahaha. We were all doing it before Pokemon released on Gameboy (/s) Palworld kinda did it to itself sailing too close to the wind. They coulda used nets or something (and EVERYONE knows that's just not as cool.)

Nintendo's lawyers aren't a bunch of Saul Goodman wannabes. If they are suing for patent violations then it will be for patents that were first filed before Palword's launch.

I wish gaming journalist would stop spreading rumours and behave as if they were actual journalists, who should rely solely on facts.

Fact: Nintendo files a patent lawsuit against PocketPair. We do not know which patents

Not Fact: this entire article claiming to know which patents and throwing oil on the fire.

Now if it turns out to be true then the fact should be announced when the knowledge is actually there, but at this stage, articles like this are really just pure *****.
I guess Game Journalism is really not about truth anymore (like regular journalism?) but only about what makes more clicks. What world do we live in.

NintendoLife is not helping things by omitting critical information in their own article, which only perpetuates emotional knee-jerk generalizations. Of course, this website benefits from all the ignorant outrage blowing up the comment section, so kudos I suppose?

Nintendo is simply pursuing their legal rights. No, it is not okay for other companies, no matter the industry, to steal ideas and technical mechanics from others. Laws such as copyrights and patents were created to protect the originator. Yes, even big, hated companies like TPC.

@Madao "I can see this being an attempt by Nintendo to get access to Palworld dev assets as part of the lawsuit and figure out if they were illegally made from Pokemon (be it using the pokemon assets and editing them or pokemon trained AI)."
I hope Nintendo does exactly that, using this lawsuit to confirm whether Palworld's designs really were used, either by hand or by a machine learning algorithm.

Even greater of an issue I believe is this new wild west of rampant AI theft, absorbing copyrighted designs without consent, throwing them into a machine learning blender, then pretending to present stolen assets as unique by simply stapling ears or wings onto the sides. Laws are not prepared to combat the sheer sophistication and speed at which AI can steal and regurgitate stolen assets. If AI is not reigned in, it will become normal to steal literally trillions of data bits, be it personal data, copyrighted assets, or professional work like a handwritten article or scientific study, etc

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