After months of will they / won't they, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have filed a lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair for alleged patent infringement. But, one industry intellectual property expert says it's "unlikely Nintendo owns any valid patents that are so powerful as to prevent Pocketpair from making Palworld.

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against "Pokémon with guns" game Palworld this week, officially kicking off a fight that's been looming since January. Now Palworld developer Pocketpair has responded, claiming it has no idea why it's being sued. This actually isn't as absurd as it sounds.

One IP expert predicts that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company's lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair is "more likely to last five years" than be settled in just one, but he's also confident that the indie survival game studio can "easily" afford the battle to come.