Before you continue I just want to say this is all just speculation on my part.
That guy admitted he was lying. The models are not derived from Pokémon ones.
I've also read the only thing one of the guys who did a comparison admitted to was scaling alteration, honestly at this point it's so long ago who know what's true or not.
Because the thing is I don't know how else they can "get" Palworld; at least any which won't be thrown out of court. "We patent the idea of sneaking around monsters and throwing orbs which they go into" doesn't really sound like a solid case, especially when said concept has been done in other games (sometimes a bit differently, sometimes in parody) Nintendo nor TPC have made no attempt to go after. This isn't the "Nemesis System" which Warner Bros. patented, you can tell that was a deep mechanic with a lot of gears and chains working in the background to create multiple games worth of unique enemies with different appearances & personalities who have potential to become stronger, raise in the Orc ranks (I believe if they get high enough they start leading their own troops, all who could be given their own identity if they defeat the player), and become your sworn enemy.
And it would be strange for them to go that angle when the design infringement case would be so much stronger. Copyright Infringement though would just be them comparing design aspects which could easily be tossed aside as "coincidence" or even as "homages". But with all the months they had I have to imagine they looked through every aspect of Palworld and found something that allowed them to file for a stronger patent infringement case which requires GF to have more solid evidence. It would be crazy not to think GF patented all their Pokemon models, after all the Pokemon are the most vital assets to the franchise. And there could be something about the models we don't realize, and if that something was also found on the Palworld models...
Nintendo really is cold.
They let Palworld rock, not amount to anything more than a flash in the pan, and then sued their asses after they got some money.
I would say the only thing that maybe made Nintendo & TPC decide to act now is Pocket Pair (Palworld's Developer) had made a deal with Sony to I think make Palworld a Sony exclusive or something to that effect.
Until now, Palworld had been under "Early Access" which technically means the game is still in development. However this deal with Sony could be the line too far, that this has been presented as a finished product to a major corporation who agreed to form a partnership on the current contents of the game.
And to Nintendo & TPC that signals it's "go time".
