My assumption is that Nintendo is going after Pocket Pair for the Pal Sphere mechanic as it directly mirrors the Pokรฉball.
Nintendo has a patent on file for this mechanic but the dates make it a bit interesting. The US patent was filed in May 2024 and approved in August 2024. The JP one appears to have been filed in December 2021 and was approved in November 2023. Palworld was announced publicly on June 2021 and launched in January 2024.
From this basis it appears that Nintendo saw a threat and tried to shore up with patents in case Palworld did well.
Overall I feel that patenting mechanics in this way limits games and gives us worse games overall. We should be copyrighting characters, art, music, and other content. Patenting mechanics sucks for everyone.
Patents aren't my forte but this definitely seems in the realm of possibility. Waiting to see how this all plays out and if my assumption is even correct.
Patent Links:
https://t.co/kPzDeASjEP
https://t.co/XXQ2b7fxuX