The Pokémon Company is suing Palworld for patent infringement. Now there is new information. In particular, one detail is supposed to be important. The lawsuit is reportedly only related to older versions of Palworld.
The Pokémon Company (Nintendo) and Palworld have been in a legal dispute for several years. After an authority revoked a patent, there is now renewed activity in the matter.
Public records have revealed that Nintendo has modified its lawsuit. This also has an important impact on the lawsuit and any potential claims for damages.
Nintendo’s lawsuit is reportedly only targeting older game versions, because Pocketpair made changes
What has changed? Nintendo and The Pokémon Company accuse Pocketpair of violating several patents with Palworld.
However, Pocketpair has countered exactly these points in recent months: Either these features have been removed or modified so significantly that they are no longer part of the lawsuit:
- Instead of throwing a sphere to summon a Pal, the being now appears directly beside the player.
- Later, gliding over Pals was also removed, so a regular glider must be used instead.
What does this have to do with the lawsuit? This likely makes the lawsuit less threatening: Nintendo’s lawsuit reportedly relies on an older version, where the developer had not yet made the criticized changes. However, since Pocketpair has adjusted these things, the practical utility decreases, and thus also the extent of the potential damages. This is reported by the well-informed magazine Gamesfray.com:
It states that Nintendo is said to have modified the lawsuit as early as November 2025, so that the case is now limited to older versions of Palworld, specifically those created before Pocketpair made changes to avoid patent infringements. In the end, it’s “only” about approximately $30,000 and no longer millions.
Legally, this is important because a lawsuit is strongest when the contested behavior is still present in the product. If the critical features have already been removed, Nintendo can argue less effectively that the ongoing game continues to violate the same rights.
By the way, Palworld is celebrating its official 1.0 release in a few weeks. To celebrate, a brand new cinematic trailer has been released, which you can watch and where more details about the game will be revealed. You can read more about it on MeinMMO: In the first trailer for Palworld, monsters were still exploited, today it presents itself quite differently
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