Rooting for Palworld devs, I can think of several examples of prior art.
Worth reading the article, but for the TL:drs and comment readers:
- A patent attorney has narrowed down the list of potential candidates that could be central to Nintendo’s lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair to 28 patents.
- Out of those, one particular intellectual property describing creature-capture mechanics was labeled as a “killer patent” that would be difficult not to infringe when making a game with monster-taming elements.
- The said property is part of a recently approved patent family consisting of three more patents, all of which were approved mere weeks before Nintendo and The Pokemon Company sued Pocketpair.
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This patent was first submitted in late July 2024 and granted the following month, after Nintendo and The Pokemon Company asked for an accelerated review process.
What the fuck - so, they’re claiming infringement on a work that was released before they ever submitted their patent? How is that allowed? Are you telling me a company can wait until another company releases a similar product, then apply for a patent for something they used, then claim infringement? I knew patents were fucked, but I didn’t realize they were that fucked.
yea that sounds nasty
just don’t patent anything, other companies build a product around an unpatented idea, then you patent it and sue them? now their entire product is ruined??
this makes no sense, that would mean the optimal play is to not patent anything until someone else starts doing it
Not in tbe US it’s not.
An existing implementation would be prior art and make it EXTREMELY easy to get the patent invalidated.
How is that allowed?
Well it’s not, you aren’t supposed to be able to get a patent for something that already exists. But you know, corruption
It’s not. In fact you know how this kind of patent gets invalidated, by pointing out what’s know as prior art. Things that did “this” before that patent was filed. So Palworlds and any other game that involves capturing a creature. This “killer patent” won’t stand up in Court unless the Japanese Court is entirely different than the US and German Courts.
JP courts are corpo jokes and their IP laws are even big clown shoe than US.
I take extra pleasure pirating JP product, fuck the corporate trash
Nintendo’s stagnated and has become a patent troll
as someone that used to be a fan I’m sad as it’s hard to be hyped for any of their games when they’re widely known for pulling these kinds of scummy tactics time and time again
indies be dammed, it’s too much of a risk to make Nintendo-inspired games let alone direct fan-games
Nintendo has always been an underhanded bully. This isn’t new.
Ya their patent crap precedes year 2000
It’s a shame you can’t support nintendo’s developers while excluding their legal department. Oh well, the high seas mean I still get to enjoy what I want to
People can’t even make a mod that requires the base game to work.
Does JP patent law not allow for prior art?
JP patent law is fucked.
JP law is fucked. I heard you could get sued for leaving a bad review at a restaurant
Nintendo…not even pirated.
Ugh, the suspense… When will we even get to know what the accusations are about? Is this Japan or Kafka’s Trial?
