Nintendo has argued mods shouldn’t be recognised as “prior art”, and therefore are irrelevant to its ongoing lawsuit with Palworld creator Pocketpair.
As part of its defence against alleged copyright infringement of the Pokémon games, Pocketpair has pointed to mods as an example of prior art that would invalidate Nintendo’s patent claims. Specifically, it highlighted the Pocket Souls Pokémon mod for Dark Souls 3, which allows players to capture and battle with enemies in the game.
Now, in a response spotted by Game Fray, Nintendo is disputing the defence because it believes mods don’t stand on their own as they require an original game to run on. As such, mods shouldn’t be subject to patent infringement in the same way Palworld is.
As Game Fray points out, game makers often look to mods for inspiration, so Pocketpair’s defence should be valid.
PC Gamer reported Japanese courts have a history of siding with patent lawsuit defendants able to present examples of prior art. That’s why Pocketpair is using Pokémon-themed mods as such an example, which Nintendo is now attempting to invalidate.
Earlier this month, Nintendo was granted a patent in the US based on the gameplay mechanic of summoning a sub-character to fight another, which covers whether the summoned character battles on player input or automatically.
Games industry lawyer Richard Hoeg told Eurogamer the patent is “enforceable in so far as it has been granted, but Nintendo likely knows it ‘got away with one’ here and would prefer not to make a court actually sign off.”
Don McGowan, former chief legal officer at The Pokémon Company, meanwhile, believes the patent will likely be ignored.
Pocketpair has disputed Nintendo’s claims as part of the ongoing lawsuit, but has already accommodated changes to Palworld.
Palworld is also heading towards a 1.0 release next year as it aims to fix “jank”.
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