• simple@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    12 days ago

    That’s not exactly it. I read the description of '191 and it seems to be more like “throwing a ball to capture a character and place it in the player’s possession or throwing it to release a captured character”. You can see the patent drawings also depecting that, so it’s basically a patent of the Pokeball.

    Not a lawyer so I have no idea how it’ll go in court but it does sound like Palworld infringes on this. It’s kinda funny that they could’ve avoided this by being a bit more legally distinct, like how TemTem throws cards instead of balls.

    • Agent Karyo@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      edit-2
      12 days ago

      Interesting. Yes, that is a bit more specific.

      I personally do not support game design patents because that’s not how gaming works (and people who file such game design patents know this).

      What are the other two patents like if you don’t mind me asking? Aiming in particular seems openly malicious (as do mounts to be honest).

      • simple@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        12 days ago

        The second one is an older application of the first patent (pokeball again). The third one is literally just being able to mount an object or creature with some caveats like a flying one having to come down and carry you up, that one is ridiculous and a lot of games do something similar all the time.

        • LordGimp@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          12 days ago

          Skyrim did it first with dragons. Honestly I bought palworld specifically to spite shitendo and ended up pleasantly surprised by a very playable game. Shitendo is just mad that someone else did it better on a shoestring budget

          • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            12 days ago

            I’m pretty sure there were flying mounts even before Skyrim. Hell, go all the way back to joust.

            • Walican132
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              12 days ago

              Didn’t you know gaming started with Skyrim. 🤦

    • BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      12 days ago

      It would be funny if a legal defense would have been using an n-sided 3d polygon that definitely isn’t a sphere. Is a tetrahedron legally distinct enough? How about a truncated isocohedron? Seems silly for the shape to matter.

      • smeg@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        12 days ago

        The one thing about patent law I know is that you can’t patent something that already exists in the wild (“prior art”), so surely that can’t be the case, and if it is then it’s open-and-shut, right?