The lawsuit between Palworld and Nintendo is now dragging another type of developers into the crossfire, but Nintendo believes that the products of these developers are not real games at all.
What do mods have to do with the lawsuit? The lawsuit between Nintendo and Palworld developer Pocketpair, which has been ongoing for a year, is still developing. Nintendo recently filed two patents, which have also been officially granted, including patent number 12.403,397. This pertains to a game mechanic related to summoning a character to fight against others.
The website for video game patent rights Games Fray reports that the strategy of Pocketpair’s defenders aims to invalidate Nintendo’s patent claims based on the prior existence of similar mods.
Patent attorney Kirk Sigmon, who has been dealing with the lawsuit between Palworld and Nintendo for some time, told PC Gamer in September 2024 (via PC Gamer) that already existing works of the described patent claims might mean that the patent has no right to be granted at all. Presented examples could therefore threaten Nintendo’s lawsuit against Palworld.
However, Nintendo has its own approach to nullify this strategy of the defenders, as the company argues that mods do not qualify as suitable examples since they are not real games.
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Mods have no place in the lawsuit according to Nintendo
What does Dark Souls 3 have to do with the dispute? Pocketpair wanted to show through the presentation of mods that resemble the mentioned patent claims that Nintendo was granted a patent for ideas that had already been used in the game design of other games. One utilized example is also the mod “Pocket Souls” for Dark Souls 3, which allows the player to capture enemies.
On Nexusmods, the mod is described as follows: “Utilize the power of your enemies to your advantage by capturing them and pitting them against each other. Master Lordran by conquering the thoughts of the creatures that inhabit it.”
How is Nintendo handling this? According to Games Fray, Nintendo argues in two separate statements that mods do not qualify as “real games” and that the examples, including the Dark Souls 3 “Pocket Souls” mod, should therefore not be relevant.
If this argument is accepted by the Tokyo District Court, it could lead to “real” developers of “real” games taking creative property from modders and patenting it themselves (via PC Games).
The ongoing lawsuit seems to find no end. Although Palworld has changed some aspects of the game in the past that would be affected by the granted patents, the defenders are still legally working to challenge Nintendo’s patent claims and render them invalid, while now other games could become an issue for Nintendo: Nintendo files a patent amid the lawsuit with Palworld that could also become a problem for other games
