The Nintendo lawsuit finally has dates: evidence October 1, court opinion November 9
The Tokyo District Court hears evidence on October 1 and is expected to give its opinion on November 9. The version of Palworld you are playing is not what is being argued over, and the money at stake is roughly 5 million yen.
Where the case actually stands
- Filed
- September 19, 2024, Tokyo District Court
- Plaintiffs
- Nintendo and The Pokémon Company
- Type
- Patent infringement — not copyright, not character design
- Patents in suit
- Japanese patents 7545191, 7493117 and 7528390 — capture and riding mechanics
- Evidence hearing
- October 1, 2026 — per docket tracking, not an official calendar
- Court opinion expected
- November 9, 2026
- Scope since November 2025
- Older Palworld builds only, before Pocketpair's changes
- Maximum damages
- About 5 million yen (~$30,000), Japanese sales only
- Risk to Palworld 1.0
- None identified — current versions are outside the claims
It is a patent case, not a copyright case
The story that spread in 2024 was that Nintendo was suing over Pals looking like Pokémon. That is not what was filed. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company asserted three patents covering game mechanics — capturing a creature by throwing an object at it, and riding a creature in the field.
The distinction matters because it changes what a loss would mean. A copyright ruling about designs could force art changes. A patent ruling about a mechanic that Pocketpair has already reworked forces nothing at all, because the mechanic in the shipping game is no longer the one described in the claims.
Your save is not at stake
In November 2025 the plaintiffs narrowed their claims to older versions of Palworld, from before Pocketpair modified the disputed mechanics. That amendment is the reason the current game sits outside the dispute entirely.
Concretely: a ruling for Nintendo on November 9 would not delist Palworld, would not force a patch to 1.0, and would not affect an existing save or server. It would be a finding about builds that are no longer distributed.
Why the damages are so small
Roughly 5 million yen — about 30,000 dollars — is the ceiling, and the arithmetic behind it is straightforward. A Japanese patent is enforceable only in Japan, so worldwide Palworld sales are irrelevant to the calculation. The claims now cover only the window between the patents being granted during 2024 and Pocketpair changing the mechanics.
Japanese sales, in a narrow window, on a game that had already sold most of its copies elsewhere. For context, that is less than the price of a single booth at a mid-size trade show, on a case that has run nearly two years.
The patents are not having a good time either
The Japan Patent Office has been sceptical of Nintendo's related applications and has rejected at least one over prior art. In the United States, the USPTO rejected all 26 claims of the summoning patent as obvious.
The American rejection is non-final and a US decision does not bind a Tokyo court, so it is not a defence in itself. It is still an awkward backdrop: the same family of ideas being argued as novel in one forum while being called obvious in another.
What October 1 and November 9 actually are
October 1 is an evidence presentation — both sides put technical arguments to the court. November 9 is when the court is expected to state its opinion.
Neither date is necessarily the end of the matter. Japanese civil procedure leaves room for settlement almost throughout, and either party can appeal an unfavourable outcome. Treat November 9 as the first real signal rather than a verdict day, and be sceptical of any headline in October that declares a winner before the court has spoken.