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Pokemon Company's Former Top Lawyer Calls Palworld 'Ripoff Nonsense'

Draugoth

Gold Member
palworld-logo-above-anubis-and-lucario-pokemon-composite.jpg

  • Former Pokemon Company Chief Legal Officer Don McGowan labeled Palworld as "ripoff nonsense."
  • McGowan, who led The Pokemon Company's legal affairs for 12 years, said he's surprised to see Palworld "got this far."
  • The Pokemon Company has so far said nothing about Palworld, but some vocal fans continue to insist the game blatantly rips off many Pokemon creature designs.

Don McGowan, The Pokemon Company's former chief legal officer, has labeled Palworld as "ripoff nonsense." His views on the hit survival game dovetail with those of some vocal Pokemon fans who are not happy about Palworld and eager to criticize it any chance they get.

McGowan's former employer has so far remained mum on the hit game. Seeing how Palworld has been sharing gameplay footage for years leading up to its early access release, The Pokemon Company already had ample time to prepare a copyright infringement complaint. Whether it decided against doing so because it wasn't convinced it had an iron-clad case against PocketPair or some other reason is unclear. But there is little doubt that the conglomerate has been aware of Palworld and its similarities to Pokemon for a long time now.


This looks like the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year when I was Chief Legal Officer of Pokemon. I’m just surprised it got this far.

Source
 

Deft Beck

Member
There's many reasons why TPC hasn't gone after any of the others, namely that they don't really have to care, since they're on top no matter how many ripoffs get made.

If you go after Palworld, then you will have to go after a ton of other Poke-likes which could have a chilling effect on the genre.
 
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SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
The blowhard lawyer has no real incentive to say it's in the bounds of copyright, but the fact is, it clearly is.

That doesn't mean Nintendo won't sue. They will. Just as PUBG sued Fortnight. Because the game is making a shit load and they probably figure they can pressure them to settle. But the fact is they weren't dumb, you can't copyright things like proportions or general color schemes.

The best Nintendo can do is try to make this a "look and feel" case, but to win that, they would need to argue that consumers are genuinely confusing this for an official Pokemon product, and I really don't think they can win that argument.
 

Raonak

Banned
The reason it "got so far" is because nintendo can't really do anything about it.

Nintendo could shut down other games was because they were fan made pokemon projects that used the exact pokemon designs, including names.
Palworld doesn't use any copyrighted content. So this is more similar to nexomon and tem tem.
The designs are similar for sure, but that's not something that'll hold up in court.

Most importantly, the game plays nothing like a pokemon game.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
The best Nintendo can do is try to make this a "look and feel" case, but to win that, they would need to argue that consumers are genuinely confusing this for an official Pokemon product, and I really don't think they can win that argument.
Might not be too hard since the marketing is using the phrase "catch 'em all"

KeG1j8u.jpg
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
But that's on Xbox/MS. The game is not using this phrase to advertise itself.
I'm sure Nintendo would rather go after Microsoft (and their deep pockets) anyway.
 

Meicyn

Gold Member
I look forward to the making of Last Fiction, an RPG starring Cumulus, a blond swordsman with spiky hair who assists some Just Stop Oil protestors in Midbulwark, a futuristic dystopian city. Party members will include a chick with large honkers, a large man with a bazooka for an arm who has urban credibility, and various other wild personalities. Twenty years from now, this game will get remade into a three part trilogy.
 

Saber

Member
Too bad its just his opinion, since he is former lawyer.
In any event, the drama itself its quite flavoury. Dunno if is enought to rime some rings at Pokemon Company itself.
 

Hohenheim

Member
Well, i'm for sure already as tired of hearing about this game as I am with the original Pokemon stuff.

As for the loud and gritty part og the Pokemon fanbase, there's a fine line between being a fan and a batshit crazy cunt.
Which of course is pretty well known in this industry in general, sadly.
 
So the IP owners of King Kong, Superman and Peter Pan are going to sue Nintendo, too?

Imagine From Software sued anyone who "copied" their gameplay, level design, or characters.

This drama is getting out of hand.
 

BlackTron

Member
I think anybody has the right to make a competing monster collecting game but the designs are clearly stolen from Nintendo and then remixed. It's like if you put an Iron-Man jetpack on Spider-Man and called it original. It's obvious theft. A great example of a Pokemon alternative not made by intentionally trolling thieves was Digimon.
 

NanaMiku

Member
Don't forget that Pokemon is not just games. Their merchandising is really strong. Palworld maybe not really a threat. Temtem also looks really similar to Pokemon, even the battle system is similar. But they didn't have any problem



I went to Pokemon Center in Japan once, and I almost spent all money even though I don't really like Pokemon that much lol.

Their random projects are really great



 

BlackTron

Member
BTW did anybody read the comment in context of the full sentence? "This looks like the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year when I was Chief Legal Officer of Pokemon."

I 100% believe that if I had been chief legal officer for Pokemon and saw this I'd be like oh anotherone.gif
 
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