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Comment by modeless | Hacker News Reader

In response, Pocketpair has hired lawyers identical to Nintendo's, except with guns.

https://hard-drive.net/hd/video-games/pocketpair-hires-ident...

Amazing lol!

Though it is worthing that Nintendo is alleging patent infringement, not copyright infringement. IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer), but that doesn't sound like they're going after the models used in Palworld, but more overall mechanics?

Possibly this patent Nintendo has for what seems to be "a thing the player throws at another thing to initiate a fight with it" (IANAL): https://patents.justia.com/patent/20240278129

How the hell can you patent that. And it isn't even specific. That's just absurd...

Also, it was filed on May 2, 2024. Seems to me like there's millions of instances of prior art in that case.

Anyone reading Nintendo patents should get used to "but, there's prior art!"

I think they've realised that proving prior art is so expensive that most smaller companies won't be able to afford the lawyers fees to do so.

That means that as long as you can sneak prior art past the patent examiner (fairly easy), you still get an effective business weapon.

>Also, it was filed on May 2, 2024.

>Palworld Release Date: Jan 18, 2024[1]

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1623730/Palworld/

And Palworld was announced at least two years prior, where this exact mechanic was shown.

It's referencing older patents, being a continuation of a US-patent from 2022, and Japanese patent from 2021.

That doesn't actually help, because Pokemon and its clones are two decades old by this point.

It's a hint that this patent is probably not a direct reaction to Palworld. And it means that we are lacking a significant amount of information regarding the whole history of these patents. Quite possible that they indeed have a trail of patents going back for decades, and this is just the latest addition.

WB patent the Nemesis system which boiled down is "a system where bosses evolve and get strong based on player interaction'. A patent they have pretty much not used and prevented other games from developing similar interactions.

Patents in gaming are weird and suck hard. They stifle innovation and growth. Games have evolved and grown on the backs of previous games forever.

Ironically "Gary" (the rival) in pokemon series is exactly that in many of the old games, he keeps getting stronger and challenging you like a boss!

That’s so bad. You should be able to patent specific rules to protect your game or like board game and avoid people from copy pasting it. But you shouldn’t be able to patent such broad mechanics…

Patents everywhere are weird and suck hard. They stifle innovation and growth. Human knowledge has evolved and grown on the back of other human knowledge forever.

Man, I'm really tired of patents and copyright. I'm not sure what's supposed to come out of this. Nobody is allowed to make a Pokemon-like game anymore? Who does that benefit other than Nintendo/TPC?

That's the Mario's hat patent

is there a clause in US patent law where if you choose to either selectively enforce your patents, or not enforcing them for a while then suddenly starting to do so, invalidates your patent?

No, but US trademark law has something like that.

Wow, did they really patent rock throwing. How the F is that allowed.

Wait to they hear about that one "Lock-picking Lawyer" then they'll always be scott free.

lol I can't tell if the linked article is satire, or if it is truthfuly repeating Pocketpair's stance. Either way I like it.

The Hard Drive is a satirical news site like The Onion. They even say they are satire on their about page [1].

[1] https://hard-drive.net/about/

“At press time, Nintendo responded, claiming guns or no they will come after Pocketpair with the same fury with which they go after 17-year olds who make fan games.”

EDIT: Hard Drive is a satyrical site like the Onion. So I just sounded like an idiot reading the Onion for the first time and taking it at face value XD

-------- My old comment below. --------

Yuck. They may have just hired yakuzas lawyers (yakuzas use a lawyers a lot, and are experts in exploiting legal loopholes (and sometimes participating in the creation of them)).

That's a shame to put money into this disgusting mafia.

hard drive is satire

Badass dude!

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