Nintendo and The Pokemon Company stand to win no more than 5 million yen, around $30,000, from their patent lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair, with the case now confined to older versions of the game. As of 13 June 2026, the written pleadings and evidence have been filed, and the Tokyo District Court has scheduled a presentation of evidence for October 1, with an opinion due on November 9, 2026.
The narrowed scope leaves Nintendo with no realistic path to blocking any current, recent, or upcoming build of Palworld, including the Palworld 1.0 release due on July 10. What started as an attempt to halt the game entirely has shrunk to a fight over old code and a payout that would not cover Nintendo’s legal bills.
The Case Is Now Limited To Older Palworld Versions
Nintendo and The Pokemon Company began their lawsuit against Pocketpair in Japan in 2024, built around three Japanese patents covering how monsters are caught in a virtual field. Palworld used a mechanic where players threw a ball-like Pal Sphere at creatures to capture them, similar to the system in the 2022 Nintendo Switch title Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
In November 2025, the plaintiffs amended the scope of their claims so the case now targets only older versions of Palworld, rather than every release. The change followed a series of gameplay edits Pocketpair made specifically to remove the disputed mechanics. Patch v0.3.11, released in November 2024, removed the ability to summon Pals by throwing Pal Spheres and switched to a static summon beside the player, alongside several other mechanic changes. In May 2025, Pocketpair changed the game again so gliding was performed with a glider rather than with Pals.
Pocketpair described those edits as compromises forced on the studio by the threat of an injunction. The developer said at the time that the changes were necessary to prevent further disruption to Palworld’s development, adding that it understood the move would disappoint players just as it disappointed the studio.
Why The Payout Could Be Just $30,000
Even if Nintendo clears every hurdle, defends its patents against Pocketpair’s invalidity challenges, proves infringement, and ties the damage to that infringement, the maximum it could recover is 5 million yen, roughly $30,000. As IP expert Florian Mueller put it, writing on games fray, that figure is chump change for either party and a rounding error against Nintendo’s litigation expenses.
The reason is timing. Palworld launched in January 2024 priced at $30 on Steam and went straight into Game Pass on Xbox and PC, breaking sales and concurrent player records. Nintendo only brought the divisional patent applications after that launch, and Pocketpair changed the game’s mechanics that November. That leaves a short window, with limited sales volume confined to Japan, for which Nintendo can claim damages. A Japanese patent is valid only in Japan, so worldwide Palworld sales are out of reach.
Mueller framed the stakes bluntly, saying the litigation is no longer about anything serious in commercial terms, and that it now concerns a hypothetical injunction that does not apply to current product versions and, at most, a small damages award for a period in which Pocketpair generated limited new sales in Japan.
What Happens Next In The Lawsuit
Pocketpair raised a range of defences across the proceedings, filing numerous invalidity challenges and non-infringement arguments, and submitting expert opinions from former judges to counter Nintendo’s accusations. Nintendo could still lose outright if the patents are found invalid or never infringed.
Nintendo’s broader patent strategy has also run into trouble. In April 2026, the USPTO rejected the company’s contested “summon character and let it fight” Pokemon patent after heavy criticism from IP lawyers, and the Japan Patent Office has grown sceptical of Nintendo’s game-rule patent applications. That difficulty in securing game-rule patents in key jurisdictions may discourage Nintendo from opening a fresh lawsuit against Pocketpair in another country.
Palworld 1.0 Arrives In July
Palworld 1.0 is due to launch on July 10, with its release date and further details revealed at Summer Game Fest 2026. Pocketpair has also filed a trademark for Palworld Online in the United States and South Korea, and the studio earlier signed a deal with Sony to form Palworld Entertainment, the business tasked with expanding the IP, before bringing the game to PS5. The court delivers its opinion on November 9, by which point Palworld 1.0 will have been on the market for nearly four months.