After nearly nine months of silence, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are officially suing Pocketpair, the developer of monster-catching game Palworld, for numerous patent infringement claims. As per a statement released on September 19, Nintendo says that "the lawsuit seeks an injunction against the defendants and compensation for damages", alleging that Palworld infringes on several of Pokémon's patents. "In order to protect the valuable intellectual property that we have built up through many years of hard work, we will continue to take the necessary measures against any infringement of our intellectual property, including our brand," the statement concludes.
This lawsuit comes months after Palworld's debut in January, which saw eight million sales during its early access launch and more than five million sales post-release. The game itself has been dubbed "Pokémon with guns", due to its similarities to the best-selling game franchise, especially between Pocketpair's 'Pals' and Nintendo's 'Pokémon'. Before the legal battle commenced, Pocketpair's CEO, Takuro Mizobe, approached the similarity claims by stating that the company "had no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies".
Despite this, Nintendo issued a statement on the matter and set its intentions to "investigate" any infringement of rights related to Pokémon. While that statement didn't name Palworld or Pocketpair directly, it no doubt left the game developer a touch worrie.