Since Palworld’s release in late January, many have accused the game of infringing on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon franchise. While the similarities between the two were clear, neither the community nor Nintendo initially found concrete evidence of any wrongdoing, despite Nintendo launching an investigation shortly after the game’s release.
In June, Pocketpair’s Takuro Mizobe brought the issue to light again, stating that the team had not been contacted by Nintendo’s lawyers. This led many to believe that there was no infringement if even Nintendo could not file a lawsuit, as long as using inspiration or making games to tame monsters was not illegal.
However, it appears those assumptions were wrong and Nintendo has now found grounds to sue the company, which isn’t at all surprising given Nintendo’s fervent passion for filing lawsuits left and right, a tactic many see as overly aggressive or even predatory. What is surprising is that it took Nintendo a whole eight months to file its initial lawsuit against Pocketpair, which raises questions about what exactly the gaming giant discovered in Palworld to warrant legal action.
So far, Pocketpair has not officially commented on the situation. Shortly after the news broke, the team’s Global Community Manager Bucky tweeted a single laughing emoji, indicating that Pocketpair is aware of the lawsuit, but the tweet itself has since been deleted.
