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Riku157
Joined: 27 Jun 2022
Posts: 178
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 Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 7:02 am |
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I'm lost. How would Pokemon have any valid claim in regards to gliding with the monsters?
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WANNFH
Joined: 13 Mar 2011
Posts: 2079
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 7:46 am |
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| Riku157 wrote: | | I'm lost. How would Pokemon have any valid claim in regards to gliding with the monsters? |
Nintendo patented the game mechanic of gliding, while someone in the Japanese patent agency approved that without the second thought and background checking - so there is zero need to validate their claims, it's literally how the copyright protection law work on the Nintendo side as the patent holder. You don't even need to be actual inventor of mechanic by it's own or even a first user of that, you just need to write vaguely enough description, somehow get it through the patent agency and call it a day.
The real questionary example of very sheer stupidity is literally patent approving for a very common game mechanic that is literally nothing but just a basic idea which is very open to interpretation and derivation, while requiring zero usage of the actual resources that can be actually copyrighted (like a game development code builds, which can be authored) - but that's yet another showcase of how actually outdated and screwed the copyright laws, which instead of actually protecting the authorship and creation purely neglect it and instead just sides with the patent trolls, copyright abusers and big corporations that shift the law on their side.
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Flash33
Joined: 06 Jun 2024
Posts: 144
Location: Florida
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 8:38 am |
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This is stupid, who cares if games allow for gliding or flying on creatures? By that logic flying mounts in games like World of Warcraft would be a violation since you can fly or glide with creatures like Dragons and Phoenix's. Same with games like World of Final Fantasy that use a mechanic (called Imprism in WoFF) to capture creatures for later use. Yes Palword has similarities to Pokémon (whether it's lawsuit worthy is for another discussion) but in this case I fail to see the point of including it in the lawsuit.
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WANNFH
Joined: 13 Mar 2011
Posts: 2079
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 11:11 am |
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| Flash33 wrote: | | This is stupid, who cares if games allow for gliding or flying on creatures? By that logic flying mounts in games like World of Warcraft would be a violation since you can fly or glide with creatures like Dragons and Phoenix's. Same with games like World of Final Fantasy that use a mechanic (called Imprism in WoFF) to capture creatures for later use. Yes Palword has similarities to Pokémon (whether it's lawsuit worthy is for another discussion) but in this case I fail to see the point of including it in the lawsuit. |
Cases of patenting obscure idea such as game mechanics can be THAT STUPID enough - for example, the notorious case of Simpsons: Road Rage in 2003 where Sega pulled a similar lawsuit to the Fox, EA and developers of the game... except it wasn't even about similarity of gameplay to their own Crazy Taxi or copyright infringement, it was patent infrigement specific suit - where the patent itself was about the UI display element, the spinning arrow indicator that give player directions to the target. Yes, Sega literally patented the GPS navigational arrow and tried to sue other developers that replicated the same mechanic in their own game.
The case itself was settled up out of the court for undisclosed conditions, so it not set any legal precedent - but yeah, that can give enough information how that sheer stupidity of patenting vague description ideas works in legal world. Heck, it's not even first time Ninty pulled that - like in their case vs Colopl and Shironeko Project, which also involved patent infringement over very obscure game mechanic description of virtual on-screen gamepad.
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zekro94
Joined: 30 Mar 2017
Posts: 122
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 3:22 pm |
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Didn't some game company patent minigames on loading screen?
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Zased
Joined: 30 Nov 2024
Posts: 144
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 4:25 pm |
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I find it interesting that despite all the claims of Genshin Impact ripping off Breath of the Wild there wasn't any lawsuit there. I wonder if the fact Mihoyo is a pretty big company who could easily fight back deterred Nintendo off and since Pocket Pair is an indie studio they were deemed easier pickings.
I disagree but can at least understand wanting ownership over monster balls and going after PalSpheres but going after gliding mechanics just seems incredibly petty.
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Fluwm
Moderator
Joined: 28 Jul 2009
Posts: 1625
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 5:25 pm |
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I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Square-Enix sues Nintendo/GameFreak for ripping off Dragon Quest, only to be blindsided when they, in turn, are sued by Atlus for ripping off MegaTen.
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FilthyCasual
Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2716
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 6:51 pm |
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Good. Hopefully everything else they stole gets stripped out too.
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Riku157
Joined: 27 Jun 2022
Posts: 178
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 7:45 pm |
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| FilthyCasual wrote: | | Good. Hopefully everything else they stole gets stripped out too. |
It's gliding. Are you really that upset about gliding with monsters being in the game?
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matt78
Joined: 25 Jul 2015
Posts: 295
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 8:05 pm |
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| Zased wrote: | | I disagree but can at least understand wanting ownership over monster balls and going after PalSpheres but going after gliding mechanics just seems incredibly petty. |
I think being petty is the point. From what I read they had little chance of winning against them for the blatant monster ripoffs. So they are going after them for trivial stuff. I wonder if this lawsuit would have happened if it wasn’t for the Pokémon with guns talk that was going around before release.
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AiddonValentine
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2947
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| Posted: Fri May 09, 2025 12:21 am |
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I'm of the "ya brought it on yourself" opinion with PocketPair's blatant shamelessness. What did you think was going to happen when you poked the dragon repeatedly? Every indie studio "we don't know him" should have also been a warning sign. Get your designers (if you have any) working and change things up instead of just photocopying what other, more talented people have done before you.
Side note: Extra long tweets like that are insufferable
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Aperture Clyde
Joined: 03 Feb 2025
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Fri May 09, 2025 2:31 am |
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| Riku157 wrote: | | It's gliding. Are you really that upset about gliding with monsters being in the game? |
If any other company announced it was patent trolling game studios everyone on this site would be united in opposition to it. There would be zero debate only just anger. But just because that company is Nintendo and Pokemon and because many gamers have turned worshiping Nintendo into their entire personality, you've got a bunch of people desperately trying to make excuses for this lawsuit on here (and all their other absurdly awful policies like charging 90 dollars for Mario Kart)
I don't understand this instinct to defend Nintendo at all costs, but maybe it's better that I don't. The only thing worse than having to deal with Nintendo apologists would be turning into one.
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