(Bloomberg) — Nintendo Co. has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Tokyo-based Pocket Bear Co., the maker of the popular video game World, seeking an injunction and damages.
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Nintendo said in a statement the following day that the lawsuit, filed in conjunction with its subsidiary The Pokémon Company, was filed in the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday. Nintendo did not say how much damages it was seeking. Pocket Bear responded by saying it was “not aware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing” and would investigate the allegations of infringement.
Palworld was an instant hit upon its release in January, elevating its creator Pocketpair’s profile and earning him the nickname “Pokémon with guns” among fans, who saw similarities between the game’s fictional monsters and those in Nintendo’s popular franchise. Software patent protection typically covers elements of the user experience — rather than the appearance of characters — and Nintendo may have found gameplay mechanics that it believed infringed on its rights.
“By Nintendo filing this lawsuit for patent infringement, not copyright infringement, it means it has given up on the claim that Palworld characters are similar to Pokémon characters,” said financial analyst Hideki Yasuda of Toyo Securities. “But it shows that Nintendo has more ways to stop games it doesn’t like. The company has a lot of patents related to core game mechanics that are used in many games available today.”
The lawsuit came as a surprise after Nintendo and Pokémon Co. had been largely silent on the issue for months, though Pokémon Co. had warned that it did not consent to any use of its intellectual property for Palworld and would take action if necessary. The game had full support from Microsoft in its initial distribution, and Pocket Bear also partnered with Sony Group to sell related merchandise.
A representative for Sony Music Entertainment Inc., which created the Pocketpair collaboration, said in an emailed statement that the company was not in a position to comment.
“Nintendo will continue to take action against any infringement of its intellectual property rights, including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual property it has worked so hard to create over the years,” the company said in a statement.
(Updates with Pocketpair’s response in second paragraph)
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