Game mechanic patents are such an unbelievable joke it’s hard to understand how any court could take them seriously. “Yes your honor. As you can see, we own the exclusive rights to the idea of throwing a ball at a creature in a video game.”
I’m always happy to remind everyone that your childhood didn’t have minigames during loading screens because it was a patented game mechanic!
Without pokemon I would not come up with it though.
Wait, so the patents Nintendo is suing them for breaching were only filed… months after Palworld was already wildly successful?
Admittedly my understanding of patents is pretty rudimentary but I thought you had to apply before releasing the idea into the world.
If that was right the general concept of a container that you throw at a creature to capture it would be considered unpatentable after Pocket Monsters Red and Green released in February 1997. Of course they could trademark the specific markings of the pokeball but the general mechanic would be fair game.
There is a concept called prior art in patent law. Prior art is information about the invention that exists before filing, it can both help secure a patent as well as prevent someone filing a patent for someone else’s existing invention.
“In a 3D space” rules out Pokemon Red. Still bullshit, though.
I’m not sure “in a 3D space” qualifies as an “inventive step” these days.
It definitely feels like something a person with ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains could easily have made on the basis of an invention or inventions that are already known.
Oh absolutely, it’s asinine. But it does avoid Pokemon Red as prior art.
Japan is such a weird place that I wouldn’t be surprised if it works
That “Palworld vs Pokemon comparison” thing has to be a joke, right? “These two creatures look similar, so obviously one of them is a blatant ripoff” and “these two creatures don’t look similar, but obviously one of them is a blatant ripoff” lmao
Gonna buy another copy of Palworld just to spite Wesley Yin-Poole and Nintendo
Gonna buy another copy of Palworld just to spite Wesley Yin-Poole and Nintendo
doubt
I didn’t say I’d buy it right now lol
I’m only a minor fan of Pokemon (in that I played them years ago and sometimes revisit an old one), and I’ve never played Palworld. I knew that it was accused of being similar with the catching critters and whatnot and always kinda scoffed at that idea too. But this article is the first time I’ve ever seen the designs side by side like that. Some of them are pretty egregious, imho.
Some of them are extremely similar, but there were over 3,000 existing Pokemon designs as of Palworld’s release. It would be a statistical wonder if none of them looked similar, especially when our criteria can be as loose as “fire fox” and “Anubis”
Where are you getting 3,000 from?
https://www.cbr.com/just-how-many-pokmon-are-there-really/
Between original Pokemon, shinies, regional versions, and weird upgrades like gigantamax or whatever
I mean, shinies are a palette swap, no? I don’t really know if I’d call that a different design.
Nintendo doesn’t want competition
They signed a deal with Sony, too.
