I’d argue It is heavily inspired, and not copied.

The game has been in development for some years now, you can even find some early ads for It. And the lack of action by Nintendo, in all this time, tells me there’s no bases for any legal action.

I’ve seen comparisons for all the pals and the “look alike” pokemons, and honestly, some are inspired by pokemons and some are similar just because they are based on the same animal, I haven’t seen any blatant copies.