Pocketpair cited the Dark Souls III mod Pocket Souls as prior art in its patent dispute with Nintendo. The mod gave Dark Souls III a Pokémon-inspired creature-catching system, allowing players to capture enemies and use them in battles.
Pocketpair’s legal argument was that gameplay ideas resembling Nintendo’s patent claims existed before the relevant patent filings. In patent disputes, prior art can show that an invention was already publicly known, potentially challenging novelty or validity. Pocket Souls was one example among a larger collection of games and player-made modifications discussed by Pocketpair.
The dispute concerns patents covering aspects of creature capture and summoning mechanics, not a simple copyright claim that Palworld copied Pokémon. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company sued Pocketpair in Japan in September 2024. Nintendo later argued that a mod dependent on an underlying game should not qualify as prior art, making Pocket Souls a prominent and contested example rather than a settled legal knockout.