Palworld Dev May End Up Getting Help From an Unlikely Source in Its Nintendo Patent Lawsuit: An 8-Year-Old GTA 5 Pokémon Mod

As Palworld developer Pocketpair’s patent battle with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company rumbles on, one patent expert has suggested the key to the cause may be found in an old GTA 5 mod.

Earlier this month, Pocketpair confirmed the three Japan-based patents, which revolve around catching Pokémon in a virtual field, that it's being sued for allegedly infringing.

After Palworld’s huge launch earlier this year on PC and Xbox, comparisons were made between Palworld’s Pals and Pokémon, with some accusing Pocketpair of "ripping off" Pokémon designs. But rather than file a copyright infringement lawsuit, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have gone down the patent route. They want 5 million yen (approx $32,846) each plus late payment damages, as well as an injunction against Palworld that would block its release.

Palworld does include a mechanic that involves throwing a ball-like object (called a Pal Sphere) at monsters out in a field to capture them, similar to the mechanic seen in the 2022 Nintendo Switch exclusive Pokémon Legends: Arceus. One of the three patents in question is about riding on top of Pokémon (Palworld also lets players ride Pals).

Nintendo reportedly moved quickly to reinforce its existing patents by fast-tracking divisional applications (new child patents of bigger, parent patents) specifically for use in its Japan-based litigation against Pocketpair, taking its first action soon after Palworld launched in January.

But now one patent expert has suggested a GTA 5 mod dating back to 2016 may be recognized as a precedent by the court, and that’s because it included the catching Pokémon mechanic long before Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

As Automaton reported, Nikkei Business Online Edition quoted Ryo Arashida, representative patent attorney from the Japan-based Patent Attorney Corporation Siarasia, as saying that while the outcome of the lawsuit is unclear, this GTA 5 mod could work in Palworld’s favor.

The mod in question is likely LudicrousBeach’s Pokémon Go GTA Edition mod, which adds the mechanic of throwing a Poke Ball at Pokémon to capture them in Rockstar’s GTA 5. The mod was inspired by and launched just a month after Niantic’s massively popular Pokémon Go mobile game in August 2016.

Arashida said the Pokémon capturing sequence used in the mod, which you can see in this video on LudicrousBeach's YouTube channel, is similar to Patent No. 7545191, one of the three patents that forms the basis of the lawsuit. The parent patent that Patent No. 7545191 belongs to was registered in December 2021, which means this GTA 5 mod also pre-dates that. Arashida said “there is a possibility that the GTA5 Pokémon mod will be recognized as a precedent by the court.” If so, Patent No. 7545191 could be deemed invalid.

This is all speculation at this point of course, but it seems likely Pocketpair will be looking for all the help it can get as it prepares its defense.

Palworld launched on Steam priced $30 and straight into Game Pass on Xbox and PC earlier this year, breaking sales and concurrent player number records in the process. Pocketpair boss Takuro Mizobe has said Palworld's launch was so big that the developer couldn’t handle the massive profits the game generated. Still, Pocketpair acted swiftly to capitalize on Palworld’s breakout success, signing a deal with Sony to form a new business called Palworld Entertainment that’s tasked with expanding the IP.

Patent experts have said Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s lawsuit against Pocketpair is evidence of the threat posed by Palworld, which has since gone on to launch on PS5. In an article on GI.biz, intellectual property expert and associate at law firm MBHB Andrew Velzen argued that the shock lawsuit shows “just how seriously Nintendo views the threat of Palworld.”

Pocketpair has vowed to take on Nintendo and The Pokémon Company in court, saying: “We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].