Nintendo and Pokémon have announced that they are suing game company Pocketpair for patent infringement their new video game ‘Palworld’ after fans noticed and pointed out on social media the similarities between the games.
The Pokémon Company and Nintendo filed the lawsuit in Tokyo on September 18th and are seeking an injunction as well as compensation for damages caused.
Nintendo released a statement shortly following the filing stating that ‘This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights.’
Palword was released first for the Xbox and as a PC game in January of this year, which was met with fans nicknaming it ‘Pokémon with guns’ as a result of the colourful characters named ‘Pals’ in Palworld. Within one month of its release, it had sold over 25 million games.
Pocketpair have responded to the filing on the 19th of September stating: ‘At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details.’ It continues to ‘allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development.’
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