The lawsuit claims patent infringement, seeks an injunction and damages.
Image via IMDB
© Pocketpair, Inc.
Nintendo announced Thursday that it and The Pokémon Company had filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, the game developer behind the Palworld game, a day earlier.
The lawsuit claims that the game infringes on Nintendo and The Pokémon Company's patent rights, and seeks an injunction against such infringement as well as damages.
Sony Music Entertainment Japan Inc. announced in July that it and its subsidiary Aniplex, along with Pocketpair, had formed a new joint venture called Palworld Entertainment.
Pocketpair launched its multiplayer survival game Palworld on January 19 as a Steam Early Access game. The game reached 25 million users within a month of its release.
Players and critics initially noted similarities in the design of many of the game's “Pal” creatures to iconic Pokémon from the Pokémon series. The Pokémon Company issued a statement shortly after Palworld's release that it was investigating possible copyright infringement by an unnamed game company.
Update: Added link to Pokémon Company statement.
Source: Nintendo, The Pokemon Company
