Palworld developer responds to Nintendo lawsuit, says "we will do our utmost" to ensure that indie devs "are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas"

News
By published

Pocketpair says it's "unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon"

Palworld
(Image credit: Pocketpair)

Palworld developer Pocketpair has put out a statement responding to the lawsuit filed against it by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, and says it'll do its "utmost for fans," and to "ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas."

Yesterday, a news release from Nintendo confirmed that a patent infringement lawsuit has been filed against Palworld's studio which 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." The news release didn't list what patent rights have been allegedly infringed, and Pocketpair claims that it hasn't been informed of such, either.

"Yesterday, a lawsuit was filed against our company for patent infringement. We have received notice of this lawsuit and will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement," Pocketpair's statement begins. "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."

Latest Videos From

Continuing, the studio says: "It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.

"We apologize to our fans and supporters for any worry or discomfort that this news has caused."

At the time of writing, it's not clear how long the lawsuit may go on for. Just this week, for example, it was announced that The Pokemon Company has won a copyright case against six companies involved in developing a mobile game which allegedly contained plagiarized designs. For context, though, the game was released in 2015, and the lawsuit was initially filed in 2021, so it's taken quite a while for it to reach its conclusion.

Nintendo said yesterday that it "will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years."

Palworld developer clarifies the hit survival game "will remain buy-to-play" and won't pivot to a free live service model.

Catherine Lewis
Catherine Lewis
Deputy News Editor

I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.