Nintendo is currently arguing that user-made modifications should not be classified as ‘prior art’ in its ongoing lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developers behind Palworld.
This contentious stance from Nintendo seems aimed at preventing Pocketpair from presenting popular Pokémon mods as evidence. Such mods could demonstrate that the gameplay elements Nintendo claims to have patented were already present in other games.
Nintendo’s core argument is that mods cannot be considered ‘art’ on their own because they rely on a base game to function. This has sparked considerable debate across the gaming industry and among Pokémon enthusiasts, who fear the wide-ranging implications should a judge accept this perspective.
Florian Mueller, a games industry reporter and legal analyst, initially broke this story on Games Fray. He characterized Nintendo’s suggestion that modded gameplay ideas aren’t viable as prior art as showing “utter disregard for the enormous creativity” within the modding community.
Even more critically, if this ruling is upheld, it could inadvertently allow patent thieves to exploit modded innovations. They could simply incorporate these ideas into their own full game releases, effectively gaining protection for concepts originally developed by mod creators.
“Patents are a special monopoly granted by the governments of the world to encourage creative invention,” business lawyer and host of the Virtual Legality podcast Richard Hoeg shared. “If something already exists in the world, some new person is not allowed to claim they invented it and get that protection. We call everything that already exists ‘prior art,’ and it would be ludicrous to exempt any piece of game design from that category simply because of how it’s stood up in the software. The mechanism for access shouldn’t really matter. It exists. It makes things like it in the world non-novel and thus not subject to protection. We don’t give out monopolies to second place.”
The question remains whether Nintendo’s argument will prevail. Mueller believes it’s improbable, as courts generally resist attempts to restrict the definition of prior art, seeing Nintendo’s stance as “extreme.” However, with the lawsuit showing no signs of slowing down, only time will reveal the outcome.
As Nintendo’s legal actions persist, Pocketpair remains focused on the upcoming 1.0 release of Palworld, expected in 2026. John “Bucky” Buckley, the communications director and publishing manager, recently confirmed that development efforts are primarily geared towards refining the game and eliminating “jank,” with a minor winter update also in the pipeline.
This report was written by Tom Phillips.