21st September 2024, 2:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 21st September 2024, 3:02 PM by Dark Jaguar.)
You may have heard the whole Palworld scandal already, getting misreported with articles going on about the similarity of various designs to certain Pokemon. I want to clarify something here. Nintendo is not suing about copyright, so whatever you feel about how close the art design is, it's not relevant to the case.
It's a patent suit. They are suing over the concept of using small items to catch large monsters. This is on the heels of another recent suit where Nintendo sued another company for using their patented concept of using a touch screen to emulate an analog stick, from Super Mario 64 DS specifically. These suits are both based in Japan, where their patent office is way too lenient. Such patents would never have been granted in the U.S., and notably, it reminds me of Capcom suing SNK way back in the day over stealing the concept of a "fighting game", and of the lawsuit against Namco for using the concept of a loading screen mini-game.
Back in 2013, a case regarding software patents went to the Supreme court here in the U.S., and it was determined that such patents are invalid as they are too obvious and hinder innovation in the software space... which they did. It didn't help that these software patents were badly defined in the first place. That is, someone just comes up with the idea of "do this, but in software" with no actual implementation developed, no source code or anything, and someone who actually does the work of realizing it then gets sued. It's called a "patent troll", and yes, it's ridiculous.
Nintendo has crossed a horrible threshold, and they've become one of the worst threats in not just the gaming industry but software as a whole. I hope they lose this, and lose BIG, because this is the kind of nonsense that can stifle creativity and cause all kinds of companies to go after each other. Just keep in mind that Nintendo will likely get sued right after this by Atlus, because catching monsters and training them comes from Shin Megami Tensei before Nintendo came up with their "Monsters in my Pocket". However, Japanese law being what it is, Nintendo is likely to win there. Here's hoping the U.S. decision stands as far as such software patents go here, but recently, other software companies have been lobbying congress critters to pass new laws establishing software patents back into reality again, as well as DNA patents.
Let me be very clear on this point. Yes, it's pretty obvious how similar these "pals" are to pokemon, but Nintendo didn't go after them on that, or on copyright. The very fact Nintendo is pursuing this as a patent case is a tacit admission they know they wouldn't win a copyright suit, that the designs and storyline backgrounds are different ENOUGH that they are their own thing, just like Captain Marvel not QUITE being Superman, or... well all of the OTHER cases of comic book characters clearly being "inspired" by existing characters. Heck we've got Namor coming out to retake the throne of Atlantis from that uptstart Aqua Man pretty soon, so that's still a thing.
It's a patent suit. They are suing over the concept of using small items to catch large monsters. This is on the heels of another recent suit where Nintendo sued another company for using their patented concept of using a touch screen to emulate an analog stick, from Super Mario 64 DS specifically. These suits are both based in Japan, where their patent office is way too lenient. Such patents would never have been granted in the U.S., and notably, it reminds me of Capcom suing SNK way back in the day over stealing the concept of a "fighting game", and of the lawsuit against Namco for using the concept of a loading screen mini-game.
Back in 2013, a case regarding software patents went to the Supreme court here in the U.S., and it was determined that such patents are invalid as they are too obvious and hinder innovation in the software space... which they did. It didn't help that these software patents were badly defined in the first place. That is, someone just comes up with the idea of "do this, but in software" with no actual implementation developed, no source code or anything, and someone who actually does the work of realizing it then gets sued. It's called a "patent troll", and yes, it's ridiculous.
Nintendo has crossed a horrible threshold, and they've become one of the worst threats in not just the gaming industry but software as a whole. I hope they lose this, and lose BIG, because this is the kind of nonsense that can stifle creativity and cause all kinds of companies to go after each other. Just keep in mind that Nintendo will likely get sued right after this by Atlus, because catching monsters and training them comes from Shin Megami Tensei before Nintendo came up with their "Monsters in my Pocket". However, Japanese law being what it is, Nintendo is likely to win there. Here's hoping the U.S. decision stands as far as such software patents go here, but recently, other software companies have been lobbying congress critters to pass new laws establishing software patents back into reality again, as well as DNA patents.
Let me be very clear on this point. Yes, it's pretty obvious how similar these "pals" are to pokemon, but Nintendo didn't go after them on that, or on copyright. The very fact Nintendo is pursuing this as a patent case is a tacit admission they know they wouldn't win a copyright suit, that the designs and storyline backgrounds are different ENOUGH that they are their own thing, just like Captain Marvel not QUITE being Superman, or... well all of the OTHER cases of comic book characters clearly being "inspired" by existing characters. Heck we've got Namor coming out to retake the throne of Atlantis from that uptstart Aqua Man pretty soon, so that's still a thing.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
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