New info on supposed patents?

[Drancon101]

Even though the patents that Nintendo are suing PocketPair for infringing on are still un-specified currently, I was doing some looking into and saw two patents that might be in question that were filed by Nintendo.

One being about the ability to throw an object at a creature and it then becomes captured and added to your team, while the other being about mounts, and how if a mount goes from air to ground, it undergoes a transition from air to ground modes.
The patents themselves don't actually describe themselves that way, as they're written in patentese, but it essentially boils down to the simplified gist.

It turns out that these two particular patents were filed in May 2024, and was publicized in August 2024. There's a third patent I saw that could apply, of which simplified, boils down to the act of playing a sound after capturing a creature, could also be used against PocketPair.

But these two particular patents were filed after Palworlds release. If anyone has any, more accurate info, would be more than welcomed. But to me, it looks like an awfully scummy move for Nintendo to make. Because they had no copyright infringement case, they had to turn to filing a patent on certain game mechanics, to then sue their competitor, after the thought. Even though Palworld isn't the only game that's doing the "Monster Catching" genre, nor is the only game that has similar looking creatures to Pokemon.

[Khergit Horse Archer]

aite im going to drop the big ol question: wheres the source

[Gauron]

Let me point out that Nintendo also patented "mounting".

Do we think its possible for Nintendo to win a lawsuit against Disney, Tencent or any of the other big companies that have games with mount systems?

[Astasia]

I haven't seen anyone suggest any specific patents that would remotely apply, both because you can't "simplify" patents like that, or because as you mentioned they were filed after Palworld was in development or released.

What I mean about simplifying, Nintendo doesn't have a patent for "throwing a ball to catch a monster." If you actually read the patent, it's for their execution of the system including the fine controls and detailed mechanics of it, and basically Palworld couldn't be in violation of it unless it was directly lifted line for line from Pokemon. The patent doesn't protect the concept of a pokeball like mechanic, the patent protect's their version of it, and there's pages of information that consist of "their version" of a pokeball and how they made it which would all have to be duplicated by Palworld to the extent a judge thinks it was "stolen."

[Zeric]

Going off a video by Arch, in Japan, it's a matter of who files a patent first, not when it was filled. If so, it's legally fine for Nintendo and their lawyers to be their traditional scummy selves.

[GrimRita]

You can't copyright a game mechanic and to that extent even patent one. It's just desperation on their part and I will fully be support Pocketpair and Palworld.

[GrimRita]

Originally posted by Irene ❤:

Jan - Palworld started.
Jan - Nintendo did nothing, despite fans waning palworld to disappear.

Apr - Palworld CEO talked about changing it to free to play.
(It means killing Nintendo's selling method isn't it?)
May - Nintendo filed gameplay patents.

Sep - Journalists reminded public of what Palworld said in April.
Sep - Palworld make a tweet that it won't be free to play.

Sep - Patents finally got approval.
Sep - Nintendo sued a Chinese mobile game copycat that made millions recently.
Sep - Nintendo sent a lawsuit to Palworld that it has conflict with their patents. It does not state how much to pay in damages.

From the information gathered, I think Nintendo is kinda forced to do it. I also believe it can settle with palworld very quickly without hurting. Palworld can grow.

You missed one big thing there - Sony and Pocketpair teaming up. Which I guess is what triggered the lawsuit, as Nintendo are still bitter at Sony over the Playstation 1

[Drancon101]

Originally posted by Khergit Horse Archer:

aite im going to drop the big ol question: wheres the source

Ya can find the patents in question, if you look up Nintendo's owned/filed patents. Here's a site I managed to find that actually has all their patents.

https://patents.justia.com/assignee/nintendo-co-ltd

The patents in question, are the 4th and 5th patents shown in the results.

[Khergit Horse Archer]

Originally posted by Drancon101:

Originally posted by Khergit Horse Archer:

aite im going to drop the big ol question: wheres the source

Ya can find the patents in question, if you look up Nintendo's owned/filed patents. Here's a site I managed to find that actually has all their patents.

https://patents.justia.com/assignee/nintendo-co-ltd

The patents in question, are the 4th and 5th patents shown in the results.

im not asking where to find the patents, im asking how do you know these are the relevant patents in the lawsuit, do you have a first hand source or is it just speculation because one of the other is not a good source of information.

[WillowFae]

The biggest patents they've got going against Palworld is 'riding your monsters' and 'catching them in balls'. Any catch-em game that allows you to ride your animals should be pursued by Nintendo and TPGC, and yet they're specifically targeting Palworld with whatever ammo they've got. There is no separate means of controlling the rider and the monster in Pokemon, even with the Arceus game, since all of the features come from the monster itself. I think the patent will be fairly easily dismissed if PocketPair remembers to mention that the Tamer can fight independently on the back of their Pal while the Pal itself has a set of exclusive moves to choose from, making it a unique system set apart from the Pokemon games. If PocketPair can recover, it could also prevent Nintendo from copying this system into their future games just so they have extra ammo against any independent smaller games like Palworld from challenging them.

As for the catching system, turn the balls into nets and call it a day. Change the model to a sphere-like bundled up coil of netting, change the animation to a spider-webbing net formation, and continue on as normal.

[Drancon101]

Originally posted by WillowFae:

The biggest patents they've got going against Palworld is 'riding your monsters' and 'catching them in balls'. Any catch-em game that allows you to ride your animals should be pursued by Nintendo and TPGC, and yet they're specifically targeting Palworld with whatever ammo they've got. There is no separate means of controlling the rider and the monster in Pokemon, even with the Arceus game, since all of the features come from the monster itself. I think the patent will be fairly easily dismissed if PocketPair remembers to mention that the Tamer can fight independently on the back of their Pal while the Pal itself has a set of exclusive moves to choose from, making it a unique system set apart from the Pokemon games. If PocketPair can recover, it could also prevent Nintendo from copying this system into their future games just so they have extra ammo against any independent smaller games like Palworld from challenging them.

As for the catching system, turn the balls into nets and call it a day. Change the model to a sphere-like bundled up coil of netting, change the animation to a spider-webbing net formation, and continue on as normal.

Indeed! If not nets, then let them be guns, and lean even more into the Pokemon with guns theme lol
Nintendo is specifically targeting Palworld, and this lawsuit is nothing but corporate bullying. They want to be the only company to have popular monster catching games. I hope they realize this is making them look really bad

[Kasa]

Originally posted by Astasia:

I haven't seen anyone suggest any specific patents that would remotely apply, both because you can't "simplify" patents like that, or because as you mentioned they were filed after Palworld was in development or released.

What I mean about simplifying, Nintendo doesn't have a patent for "throwing a ball to catch a monster." If you actually read the patent, it's for their execution of the system including the fine controls and detailed mechanics of it, and basically Palworld couldn't be in violation of it unless it was directly lifted line for line from Pokemon. The patent doesn't protect the concept of a pokeball like mechanic, the patent protect's their version of it, and there's pages of information that consist of "their version" of a pokeball and how they made it which would all have to be duplicated by Palworld to the extent a judge thinks it was "stolen."

It's like no one bother reading your post dude... As Astasia said you can't patent something as simple as "throw ball catch creature", all Nintendo's patent is for is their SPECIFIC implementation of "throw ball catch creature".

If you could patent entire base concept such as riding an animal then hot damn Barbie Horse Adventures is in deep ♥♥♥♥!

[Zebuta]

In my opinion, the main culprits for riling up Nintendo against Palworld are the insane Pokemon fans themselves constantly whining on social media that it got Nintendo's attention. I'm a Pokemon fan, and I play Palworld. But I feel disappointed in these other "crazy fans," whose main goal is to make Palworld disappear and think they delusionally work for Nintendo. In all seriousness, Palworld is a different game. Pokemon fans love to be that person to ruin the fun. Seriously what has gaming come to?

[Flying Fish]

How would damages here work tho? Even if plaword infringed on the patents I don't think a single soul that played and bought Pokemon games stopped because of palworld

I just don't see what damage Nintendo sustained here

Anyone care to explain?

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Flying Fish:

How would damages here work tho? Even if plaword infringed on the patents I don't think a single soul that played and bought Pokemon games stopped because of palworld

I just don't see what damage Nintendo sustained here

Anyone care to explain?

Basically the case is since they own the IP they are owed some form of "royalty" for the IP being used in other games, and that is what they are seeking. For context, Nintendo won a copyright case against a mobile game recently that called itself "Pocket Monster Reissue" and blatantly used characters from Pokemon and tried to make people believe it was an official Pokemon game, this mobile game was supposedly earning like $45 million a year, and after losing the case they were forced to pay Nintendo... $15 million, that's it.

So the "damages" here, regarding a mechanic(s) the developers themselves aren't aware of and players can't agree on, is likely going to be minimal at worst, compared to a game that was basically committing fraud using their IP.

[pprandom]

Honestly, it shouldn t matter who filed a patent first. If it s an idea that was done before in any capacity that patent should be null and void or be held to a t in terms of legality. This is plain corporate bulling.