Back in March, when asked whether he was concerned the newly released Palworld (dubbed by the internet as "Pokémon with guns") was copying Pokémon's IP, the Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa stated: "We will take appropriate action against those that infringe our intellectual property rights." This week has certainly shown that statement to be true. The Pokémon Company was awarded $15 million in damages after succeeding in a copyright infringement claim (filed in 2021) against the developers of "Pocket Monster Reissue", a Chinese Pokémon clone, and they have now followed up this win by bringing infringement proceedings against Pocketpair, the makers of Palworld.
An action against Pocketpair has been long anticipated, as the internet was awash with side-by-side comparisons between Pals and Pokémon bearing a striking resemblance almost immediately after Palworlds release. Interestingly however, The Pokémon Company is not alleging copying of its character designs (i.e. copyright infringement), but rather infringement of its "multiple patent rights" in various technologies. Though it is not currently clear which exact patents The Pokémon Company will be relying on in this dispute, this does tell us that the claim relates to alleged infringement of game play elements/technologies protected by patent rights, rather than specific character designs. This might suggest that, on the whole, even though a number of Pals do bear a resemblance to Pokémon designs, Pocketpair may have changed enough to avoid falling foul of copyright infringement in this case, so long as a "substantial part" of the earlier copyright has not been copied.
This case clearly demonstrates the value of maintaining a diverse portfolio of IP rights, whether trade marks, designs, copyrights, or, as in this instance, registered patents.
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