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Palworld's irreverent 'Pokémon with guns' conceit won it all sorts of buzz, but also attention from Nintendo's infamous lawyers—Palworld developer Pocketpair was sued by the big 'tendo back in 2024 over a few Pokémon patents for around $66,000 in damages—a small payout for such a big company, but with an apparent aim to bleed Pocketpair for millions more just fighting the suit.
It's been nearly two years since then, and while Palworld remains one of the most played games on Steam, Nintendo is poised to get less than half what it initially wanted. That's if it even wins, which it very well may not, according to IP expert and former Blizzard employee Florian Mueller via games fray (thanks, IGN).
"This litigation is no longer about anything serious in commercial terms," Mueller wrote. In the article, Mueller explains that much of Palworld's commercial success came from before the relevant patents were approved, and damages couldn't be awarded for any sales that came after any potentially patent-infringing mechanics were patched out. "So it’s only a short window, with a limited sales volume (and territorially limited to Japan), for which Nintendo can seek damages."
Of course, it's also possible that Pocketpair's "numerous invalidity challenges and non-infringement arguments" pay off and Nintendo gets nothing. Either way, the court will express an opinion on Nov. 9 later this year, and whatever is decided, Mueller said the most Nintendo can get is 5 million yen, or around $30,000—"chump change for either party, and just a rounding error compared to Nintendo’s litigation expenses."
Nintendo's action against Palworld and its broader patent strategy around the popular monster-collecting RPG have both proven controversial. Last year, videogame patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon called Nintendo's newest Pokémon-related patents "an embarrassing failure of the US patent system" that "should not have happened." Pocketpair hasn't shied away from all this chaos, going so far as to announce a familiar-sounding card game even as it fought the lawsuit.
It's refreshing and perhaps surprising to hear that Pocketpair will make it out of this largely unscathed. Regardless of whether the suit was reasonable in the first place, the threat of litigation and its associated costs can often be too daunting for non-Nintendo-sized companies to face.
