Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, just as it appeared that Nintendo might have missed Palworld.

Nintendo has filed a lawsuit for patent infringement against Pocketpair, which is the studio behind Palworld. Palworld is a game that has been compared to the Pokemon series. It has received both criticism and passionate defense for how similar some of its characters are.

Nintendo's announcement states that the lawsuit is seeking an injunction and damages for infringement of multiple patent rights by Palworld, a video game developed and released in the past few years by the defendant. "Nintendo continues to take the necessary actions to protect its intellectual property, including the Nintendo trademark itself, in order to protect the intellectual property it has worked so hard to establish throughout the years."

Palworld was released in January and sold over 4 million copies in a week. This sparked a debate about whether it is a blatant Pokemon copy or a cute parody. Palworld, for some, seemed too similar to Pokemon to be comfortable. Some commentators compared Pokemon 3D meshes to Palworld's. Pocketpair dev leader Takuro Mizobe assured the public that his studio "has not intention of infringing on the intellectual property rights of other companies." He also called the accusations slanderous.

Before the month ended, it was obvious that the lion was prodded. Nintendo, or specifically Nintendo's The Pokemon Company, announced that it would "investigate any acts that infringe upon the intellectual property rights relating to the Pokemon" and take "appropriate measures".

Since then, the conversation surrounding the game has cooled. Mizobe told GameFile in June that the studio had "nothing" to do with any potential lawsuit. Nintendo has taken around eight months to take legal action. In true Nintendo style, they will fight this with vigor.