{"id":69903,"date":"2026-07-22T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=69903"},"modified":"2026-07-22T22:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:46:07","slug":"nintendo-patent-central-to-palworld-lawsuit-stays-rejected-as-jpo-shuts-down-objections-in-unusually-sharp-tongued-notice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-patent-central-to-palworld-lawsuit-stays-rejected-as-jpo-shuts-down-objections-in-unusually-sharp-tongued-notice\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo patent\u00a0tied\u00a0to\u00a0Palworld\u00a0lawsuit stays rejected\u00a0as JPO shuts down\u00a0objections in\u00a0unusually sharp-tongued\u00a0notice\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, Japan’s Patent Office (hereafter JPO) published a notice of rejection<\/a> of Nintendo and The Pok\u00e9mon Company’s divisional patent application No. 2026-019762<\/a>. Describing an “in-game monster-capturing system,” this patent application is closely tied to the ongoing legal dispute with Palworld developer Pocketpair<\/a>, so it comes as no surprise that the rejection has attracted attention.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But curiously, Japanese users have pointed out the uncharacteristically scalding language JPO’s examiner used in addressing the counterarguments from Nintendo’s side, with people amusedly posting their “favorite quotes”<\/a> from the legal back-and-forth. Industry professionals like Japanese patent attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara have likewise commented<\/a> that both Nintendo\u2019s objections and the examiner\u2019s written response contained \u201cthings rarely seen in standard patent practice.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the key factors behind the patent’s rejection is a YouTube gameplay video<\/a> from 2013 demonstrating the indie fangame Pok\u00e9mon Generations. In its initial “Reasons for Rejection,” the JPO cited gameplay mechanics showcased in the video to argue a lack of inventive step in Nintendo’s patent application, describing mechanisms like “selecting a Pok\u00e9 Ball displayed at the bottom right of the screen causes Ash to throw it; if it hits Pikachu, Pikachu can be captured.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, in its subsequent counterargument, Nintendo’s side strongly disputed these claims, emphasizing that the game in question and the characters depicted in it infringed upon its copyrights. They argue that JPO’s examiner “acted extremely inappropriately by deliberately mischaracterizing an infringing product as though it were an authorized one,\u201d and this sentence is repeated numerous times throughout the document. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In turn, in the recent notice confirming the rejection, JPO’s examiner shuts down the mention of copyright infringement entirely, explaining that, based on domestic patent law and court precedent, whether an invention infringes on copyright or not has no bearing on determining inventive step. While somewhat drily implying that Nintendo\u2019s stance strays from \u201cstandard thinking for patent practitioners,\u201d they dismiss the interpretation that the examiner acknowledged the cited fangame as an officially licensed Pok\u00e9mon game as a “completely unreasonable misunderstanding.” They also add, “The mere possibility that the reasons for rejection could be subject to such an unreasonable misunderstanding has no bearing on the assessment of inventive step.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another part of the notice that has been causing amusement among Japanese users is the examiner’s apparent annoyance with Nintendo’s pedantry over how the unofficial game and its content was referred to in the reasons for rejection. In its counterarguments, the company stated, “Ash, Pikachu, and Pok\u00e9 Ball should properly be referred to as “a character infringing upon Ash,” “a character infringing upon Pikachu,” and “a character infringing upon Pok\u00e9 Balls,” respectively.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, the examiner says, “If it were impermissible for the reasons for rejection to refer to character names, then even at the cost of being redundant, accuracy should take precedence. In that case, the notice would need to use cumbersome descriptions such as ‘an object in the form of a small animal’ instead of Pok\u00e9mon, ‘an object in the form of a boy wearing a red cap’ instead of Ash, ‘an object in the form of a small yellow animal’ instead of Pikachu, ‘an object in the form of a small green animal’ instead of Bulbasaur, and ‘a spherical object with a red upper half and a white lower half’ instead of Pok\u00e9 Ball. However, even with such rephrasing, the logical structure of the grounds for refusal remains unchanged. Therefore, this argument has no bearing on determining inventive step.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another objection raised by Nintendo positioned that the Pok\u00e9mon Generations video was “merely\u00a0a video” and thus the examiner\u00a0could not\u00a0extract\u00a0the technical elements of the\u00a0claimed invention from it. The examiner seems puzzled by\u00a0what this argument is supposed to mean, surmising that it\u00a0is probably intended to\u00a0imply one\u00a0of two things: that Nintendo’s side acknowledges that the video is genuine gameplay footage, but does not believe footage alone\u00a0can\u00a0disclose the\u00a0technical\u00a0features of a game program; or, that Nintendo’s side is casting doubt about whether the video is gameplay footage at all, but\u00a0perhaps\u00a0merely an animated video to which narration has been added so as to make it appear as though the uploader were playing a game. The examiner promptly dismisses both arguments, while noting that in the second scenario, “the uploader’s behavior would be way too preposterous.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these are just some snippets, JPO’s notice ultimately did not acknowledge the objections brought forth by Nintendo’s side, and the patent’s rejection has been sustained. Nintendo now has the right to file a petition for a trial against the decision of rejection with the Commissioner of the JPO within three months. Note that this rejection does not invalidate the registered patent currently being directly asserted in the Palworld lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court. Rather, it concerns the JPO\u2019s refusal to grant Nintendo a patent for a separate divisional application within the same patent family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: <\/strong>Nintendo and The Pok\u00e9mon Company h<\/strong>a<\/strong>ve reportedly narrowed Palworld lawsuit to older versions of the game only, likely thanks to \u201cpreventive\u201d updates by Pocketpair<\/strong><\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The language of JPO’s rejection of Nintendo’s monster-catching patent application has sparked amusement among users in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":69905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2","date":"2026-07-22T13:00:07+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mraevzsmtj2e","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mraevzsmtj2e\",\"cid\":\"bafyreid62yjmtkkmzer7gjkkvcsmpvflf2rh46o24pg7d5a3ye35l3r44i\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreielw7yeqpw7pwrozagrfmcrk2m46yu5pcnchsolyd2xclcwdkebbe\",\"rev\":\"3mraevzsqqj2e\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-69903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nNintendo patent\u00a0tied\u00a0to\u00a0Palworld\u00a0lawsuit stays rejected\u00a0as JPO shuts down\u00a0objections in\u00a0unusually sharp-tongued\u00a0notice\u00a0 - 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