Palworld Pokemon Discourse and the Copyright Laws in Japan

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The success of Palworld and its similarities to the gargantuan pet collector franchise that is Pokemon has been a hot topic lately, sparking debate on whether the former is engaging in copyright infringement on the latter. Palworld had without a doubt taken the world by storm with its absurd concept, mashing up monster collection elements with base-building survival mechanics, while sprinkling in some firearms to the mix for chaotic violent fun.

Despite being in early access for a short period, the game quickly gained a large player base and even hit over 2 million concurrent players on Steam, surpassing the FPS titan Counter-Strike 2. Its success is certainly worth praise, yet it also attracted a lot of negativity online as people voiced out concerns and outrage over the themes and creature designs of the game.

Since its launch, Palworld has been repeatedly called out for alleged acts of plagiarism as many Pals, the game’s collectible monsters, shared a striking resemblance to the beloved Pokemon. The similarity is enough that people were confident enough to call Nintendo to file a lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocket Pair. The controversy got so heated that The Pokemon Company eventually released an official public statement saying that they would investigate and take appropriate measures to address any potential acts of copyright infringement.

What exactly is copyright infringement? Simply put, it is when a copyrighted work is reproduced and distributed without the permission of the copyright owner.

Japan Copyright Laws

With all that said, did Palworld really infringe on the copyright of Pokémon? It depends.

One widely misunderstood aspect of copyright law in Japan is that it is different from the rest of the world. However, this is far from the truth as Japan also follows the Berne Convention, an agreement established in 1886 to protect intellectual property which many countries follow. The misunderstanding is understandable, considering the amount of stories behind Japanese companies’ brutal takedown of anything they deemed to have infringed on intellectual properties.

While Japan’s copyright law is much like many other countries, it does still have notable differences. That being the absence of the ‘fair use’ policy, which is a doctrine that allows for limited use of a copyrighted property without needing permission, but with a “transformative” purpose, such as to commentate, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work.

The ‘fair use’ policy generally applies to content creation on online platforms, where most stories of Japanese companies taking down works came from. In fact, Nintendo is famous for its relentless takedown of fan games and online content based on its IPs, with notable cases happening frequently on video streaming website YouTube.

Concepts and Copyright 

However, the ‘fair use’ policy does not apply to the case of Palworld even if it exists in Japan because the claims by people are that the game is infringing the copyright of Pokemon through plagiarising character designs. These are just claims, however, since there was never direct evidence of Pocket Pair doing so and even accusations of the company using AI generative technology to create the designs are just accusations at the moment.

First, we must understand that nothing in the world of video games is truly original, everything is an iteration of something else. Even Pokemon itself is a mix-match of real-world and fantastical critters with otherworldly elements. Copyright does not protect an idea or concept, it protects the established expressions of them. In other words, you cannot copyright the idea of a world filled with collectible critters because Pokemon did not invent the concept, but you can copyright the established IP itself and the majority of its elements.

This is where things get muddy because, on one hand, it is easy to point fingers at Palworld and be like, “Hey, Anubis looks like Lucario. It must be a copy!” But on the other hand, it has many of its own elements that it could stand on its own. The complicated part is how much the threshold of similarities between the two would the court deem as plagiarism.

In most cases, it has to be substantially similar to even be considered copyright infringement. Despite how similar Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is to League of Legends, the court still dismissed the lawsuit that Riot Games filed against developer Moonton. That being said, aside from plagiarism, Palworld was also accused of stealing 3D assets from the Pokemon games, which can be the drive for a potential Nintendo lawsuit if proven true. Even so, it is still an accusation, and aside from the similar geometrical structure of the models, there is no further input regarding this matter to say for sure that Pocket Pair stole assets.

Legal Action from Nintendo 

While I can definitely see some similarities between the creature design of both games, it is hard to say if Nintendo would follow through with a lawsuit. The company has always known, for better or for worse, for its ruthless takedown of anything that shares a semblance of infringing its IPs. Yet, Nintendo did not go after Pocket Pair in 2021 when Palworld was first announced and let the game eventually be released.

Even though The Pokemon Company has released an official statement regarding investigating an unnamed game, which obviously refers to Palworld. Many had speculated that the statement is directed towards any mods that put Pokemon models into Palworld, like the one that was quickly copyright-claimed by Nintendo.

A thing to note is that aside from creature designs, Palworld is substantially different from the mainline Pokemon games. Apart from elements of collecting creatures, its game is mostly centered around survival and base building. Of course, the ‘fair use’ policy has nothing to do with the discourse either as Palworld uses no actual Pokemon in the game. While there are certainly similar creature designs, what degree of similarity is considered copyright infringement? Ultimately, it is up to the court to decide.

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