Nintendo and Pokémon Sue Over “Pokémon With Guns” Game — What You Need to Know

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, the creators of Palworld, accusing the studio of patent infringement. The suit was filed in Tokyo District Court and could have far-reaching consequences for future patent battles in the gaming industry. Here's what's known so far.

Key Details of the Case

Pocketpair released Palworld into early access in early 2024. It's an open-world game populated by animal-like creatures. Because of the resemblance to those creatures, the game was compared to the Pokémon franchise and earned the unofficial nickname “Pokémon with guns.” Against that backdrop, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed suit alleging infringement of patents on specific gameplay concepts used in Palworld.

In September 2024, the plaintiffs accused Pocketpair of infringing three specific Japanese patents and sought ten million yen (about $65,160) in damages.

The Dispute Centers on Three Japanese Patents

• Patent No. 7545191 — describes the activation of “rideable characters” that can move through the air when prompted by the player. Palworld features flying mounts, which likely triggered the claim.

• Patent No. 7493117 — covers aiming and throwing an item to capture creatures, along with an indicator showing the success rate. Palworld uses a similar mechanic with its Pal Sphere and a capture success indicator.

• Patent No. 7528390 — relates to combining two actions: aiming a capture device and releasing a captured creature to battle. This mechanic is also present in Palworld during monster fights.

Palworld Alters Its Summoning Mechanic Amid the Dispute

In response to the lawsuit, one of Palworld's recent patches disabled the option to call captured animals by tossing special spheres onto the battlefield. That mechanic directly resembled what The Pokémon Company's patents protect.

Pocketpair has not officially commented on the change. Many speculate it was a step to reduce legal risk. The core mechanic — capturing creatures with spheres — remains in the game. Pocketpair appears to be navigating the fallout of the lawsuit carefully.

The studio later kept changing the disputed mechanics. Patch 0.3.11 (November 30, 2024) replaced summoning a Pal by throwing its sphere with a static summon beside the player, and patch 0.5.5 (May 8, 2025) changed the flight mechanic: instead of flying directly on a Pal, the player uses a separate glider item. Removing and then reworking these features may have been an attempt to avoid losing in court, since these were exactly the mechanics at the center of the infringement claims. In November 2025, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company also narrowed their claims to the older builds of Palworld released before these patches, so the current version of the game effectively stopped being the subject of the dispute.

Why There's No Copyright Claim

Nintendo is not alleging copyright infringement and is betting on patents instead. The game and its elements are protected by copyright, and at first glance Nintendo could have accused Palworld of copying its characters — the Pokémon.

Choosing patents over copyright may seem surprising, but it's most likely a calculated move. Proving copyright infringement is difficult because of the significant differences in world and character design: any similarities may turn out to be coincidental. That's why Nintendo and The Pokémon Company built their case on infringement of gameplay-mechanic patents. There are no claims about character design in the case.

What Are Patents in Games?

Patents protect new inventions or processes, and in video games they often relate to gameplay mechanics. Patenting a gameplay feature is a rare and difficult task that only a few large companies can pull off.

Here are some examples.

Nemesis System (Warner Bros.)

The Nemesis System is a key element of Shadow of War and Shadow of Mordor. Warner Bros. patented it in 2021. The system lets rank-and-file orc soldiers develop depending on how they interact with the player. If an orc survives, it grows stronger, learns new abilities, and may remember past encounters the next time it meets the player.

Dual-Reality Gameplay (Bloober Team)

In The Medium, the player controls a heroine who exists simultaneously in the physical and spiritual worlds. Its creator, Bloober Team, patented this “dual-reality gameplay.” The invention concerns the simultaneous control of characters across different digital worlds.

Why Patent Disputes Are Hard to Win

In patent disputes, similarity alone is not enough. To win, the plaintiff has to prove that the defendant's product exactly matches the patented details. Missing even a single element can bring the case down. If Nintendo and The Pokémon Company prevail, it could set a dangerous precedent for the industry: other companies would start using patents against competitors.

Notable Patent Disputes in Gaming

Successful lawsuits over infringement of gameplay-mechanic patents have already happened. Take Capcom v. Koei Tecmo (2019). Capcom won its case in Japan's Intellectual Property High Court; it concerned patents on controller vibration that warns the player about nearby enemies, and on unlocking bonus content using discs from previous games.

It's worth adding that Pokémon has already been at the center of a patent dispute. In 2022, K.Mizra won a suit against Niantic in Germany. The court concluded that Niantic's Pokémon Go, created with backing from The Pokémon Company, infringed the plaintiff's patent. The disputed patent simplified device interaction and let users take part in multiplayer modes.

The dispute between Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and Pocketpair is one to watch. A win for Nintendo and Pokémon could set a notable precedent for future patent disputes in the industry. The details of the case are still unclear, and we'll keep following how it develops.

What's Next?

Even though the dispute continues, its focus has gradually shifted. After Pocketpair changed the disputed gameplay mechanics, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company's claims came to cover only the earlier versions of Palworld. That significantly lowers the chance the court could ban distribution of the current version of the game.

At the same time, the proceedings are far from over. The Tokyo District Court has scheduled an evidence hearing for October 1, 2026, after which it is due to signal its position on the case on November 9, 2026.

Palworld itself is moving forward in parallel. On July 10, 2026, the game officially left early access — version 1.0 launched on PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, and Xbox.

It's the next stages of the proceedings that will show whether Nintendo can prove its patents were infringed and whether this case becomes a new benchmark for the entire gaming industry. Even if the current version of Palworld is now unlikely to face a ban, the court's final ruling could determine how effectively large game companies can use patents to protect gameplay mechanics in the future.

The amounts in dispute are symbolic. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company each seek ¥5 million (about $65,000 combined) plus interest. Nintendo's litigation costs, meanwhile, are growing: in its FY2026 annual report (published May 8, 2026) the company disclosed ¥6.414 billion (about $41 million) in litigation expenses — nearly 96% of its extraordinary losses for the year. Nintendo did not provide a breakdown by case.

This material was updated in July 2026 by the Futura team.