Dragon Ball was using capsules to store things long before Pokemon did. And Dragon Ball Z, which ended in Japan in '96 had already done storing 'creatures in capsules. Saibamen for one. And after the Saiyan saga Bulma puts her dead friends in coffin capsules.

So Akira Toriyama did it before Pokemon.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Also, Iron Bands of Bilarro in DnD 5e, but I'm not sure how far back the history of that item goes. DnD 3.5 had Iron Flask that works kinda the same, but Iron Bands is more similar to a Pokeball.

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah, they should absolutely argue that storing things, alive or not, in capsules has been used in numerous movies and shows and that the patent is invalid. Big corporations make tons of patents all the time just in case and then see if they hold up in court later, such as Nintendo with their pokeballs in this case. They still don't know whether Palworld is an infringement or not