Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developers of the Palworld game. The plaintiffs demand compensation for damages caused by Pocketpair's infringement of numerous patent rights. This was reported by IGN.
A lawsuit 9 months after the release of Palworld is somewhat unexpected. Shortly after the game's release, Nintendo made a statement that it intended to "investigate and take appropriate action" against any plagiarism.
But six months later, in June, Pocketpair reported that Nintendo had not contacted Palworld's developers about plagiarism or any other issue.
When Palworld was released, it quickly gained fame as "Pokémon with guns." Many people drew attention to the visual similarities between Palworld and Pokémon, but the developers insisted that their game had much more in common with survival games like Ark Survival Evolved and Valheim than Pokémon.
Nintendo does not name which patents Pocket Pair has violated. It is also unclear whether these patents cover character designs. But they may cover game mechanics.