Palworld lawsuit results in Nintendo's monster-capturing patent being rejected.

Nintendo's lawsuit against Pocketpair is still ongoing, despite early predictions that the former would put pressure on the Palworld developer. In reality, things don't go as planned for the Japanese giant, resulting in a series of Banzai moves aimed at taking down Pokémon in a total MMO.

Among these last-ditch efforts was a patent for a system for capturing monsters. Unfortunately for Nintendo, the Japanese Patent Office rejected the patent, citing a lack of creativity and many examples of similar systems being used in other games such as Ark, Monster Hunter 4, and Craftopia.

Nintendo's Anti-Palworld Patent Rejected

According to a report from GamesFray (via Insider Gaming), Nintendo's patent application 2024-031879 has been rejected by the JPO. In terms of patents, this is the sibling of the larger anti-Palworld patent and the parent of another patent. As you can see, Nintendo's lawyers have meticulously filed these patents, but it doesn't seem to be enough.

Considering how many games are already using similar features before December 2021, Nintendo's attempt to get a 'monster catching' patent was always going to be difficult to succeed. This is not a new or creative feature and this is the main reason for rejection. Of course, this doesn't mean litigation won't go anywhere. We know how determined Nintendo's legal team is.

The lawsuit dragged on for a while and Nintendo did its best to derail Pocketpair. A previous hearing went so far as to say that the mod cannot be considered prior art and cannot stand on its own like the game it is based on. The implications of this statement are much broader, as the creative innovations and hard work of the modding community will become fair game for others to patent.

Palworld has already removed the Pal Spheres mechanic and, thanks to the lawsuit, has also implemented changes to the Pal guide. This is already a huge win for Nintendo, but it seems their legal team isn't satisfied and wants to remove even more features from the game.