Nintendo Patent Tied To Palworld Lawsuit Stays Rejected As JPO Shuts Down Objections In Unusually Sharp-tongued Notice

The Japan Patent Office (JPO) has upheld the rejection of a divisional patent application by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company concerning an "in-game monster-capturing system." This specific application is highly significant due to its connection to the ongoing legal battle between Nintendo and Pocketpair, the developer of Palworld. The rejection was prompted by a 2013 YouTube video of the fan-made game Pokémon Generations, which the JPO used to argue that the patent lacked an inventive step.

The legal exchange has gained attention for the uncharacteristically blunt and sharp language used by the JPO examiner. Nintendo argued that the examiner was "extremely inappropriate" by treating an infringing fan game as a legitimate reference for patentability. Nintendo also insisted that characters like Ash and Pikachu should be referred to as "infringing characters" rather than by their names. The examiner dismissed these arguments, stating that copyright status has no bearing on patent inventive steps and that using descriptive terms for characters would be unnecessarily cumbersome and would not change the logical grounds for refusal.

While the rejection of this divisional application is a setback for Nintendo, it does not affect the validity of the existing patents currently being used in the Palworld lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court. Nintendo maintains the right to appeal the JPO's decision to the Commissioner within three months.

(Source：Recentlyheard)