Back in September, 2024, news broke out about Nintendo suing Palworld creators, PocketPair, in Japan over many of the mechanics that Palworld uses, sharing similarities with the Pokemon franchise, in what later was confirmed to be a patent infringing lawsuit, according to Nintendo and Game Freak's claims.

While PocketPair did release a response about the whole situation later on, little has been known since then about the lawsuit between the two companies in Japanese grounds. However, this week more information was known about Nintendo's moves in the American continent, as they sought to claim 23 patents in the territory.

GamesFray, a website focused on analyzing and reporting over the litigation aspects of the gaming scene, has been following the case closely, going through Nintendo's legal trail in both continents, analyzing the case and reporting over each new step taken in the legal battle. GamesFray disclosed back in February 8th that Nintendo submitted 23 patent claims to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

However, out of those 23 patents submitted by Nintendo, the USPTO rejected 22 out of those 23 patent claims due to those 22 patents not being considered inventive over prior existing art, leaving only one patent to Nintendo, with the USPTO willing to grant that one patent only if Nintendo drops the other 22 patent claims (since that specific patent was dependant on a rejected one).

All of this is the result of the on-going Palworld lawsuit, of course, and Nintendo's modus operandi in this situation is to try to expand the patent gripe to other territories in hopes of gathering more patents overseas, and then, once Nintendo manages to claim enough patents over their "ideas" and "mechanics" (since it has yet to be confirmed if Palworld has indeed infringed on them or not), then they can apply the same legal action against PocketPair in other countries of operation.

Of course, this being Nintendo, they will try to fight the rejected patents and will continue to pursue and flex their legal front to garner more and more patents filled in their favour, but that remains yet to be seen. Additionally, the legal battle in Japan over the patent lawsuit is still unknown, and with how Japan's laws over copyright and patents, in which the terms Fair Use and Prior Art might as well not exist, it's difficult to know if the outcome might be favourable for PocketPair or not.

Source #1
Source #2

 

[SylverReZ]

This is a great day, I'm glad the US court is destroying Nintendo's bullshit lies. Palworld did nothing wrong.

 

[Facky]

Even as a Nintendo fan I think this is good. Too many patents like this can stall innovation and creativity.

 

[Lodad]

YIKES. Going 1 for 23 should be majorly indicative of how they're REALLY fishing for anything they can use as ammo.

 

[Dark_Ansem]

Luigi's Revenge

 

[Osha]

I don't like Palworld but I dislike's Nintendo's stupid legal battles even more so I don't mind them getting humbled a bit.

 

[Deleted member 535703]

I think patenting game mechanics stifles innovation. I can think of a few games where if the mechanics were put into a different project and tweaked a bit, it would be so much better. Video games are an art form. You wouldn't sue someone for taking inspiration in art? Only for fully replicating it. Palworld didn't pirate anything, they made their own game, even if it looks like a GameFreak IP. Who cares?

 

[YuseiFD]

Nintendo be like "if it breathes, it is our intellectual proprety"

 

[SDA]

Nintendo thinks that they OWN the entire gaming industry, patents included. Such idiotic fools.

 

[Ondrashek06]

I'd say that about 90% of this stupid drama is only a thing due to the "gaming journalists" bringing attention to Palworld by calling it "Pokémon with guns".

 

[ShadowOne333]

I'd say that about 90% of this stupid drama is only a thing due to the "gaming journalists" bringing attention to Palworld by calling it "Pokémon with guns".

I'd say it's "game journalists" which are obviously just sellouts that want to still keep getting things for free from them and also those idiotic Nintendogs (Nintendo shills) that can't believe another company did a far better job with the concept than Nintendo/Game Freak did in more than a decade, and at the first attempt too and without horrendous performance.

 

[Kwyjor]

Going 1 for 23 should be majorly indicative of how they're REALLY fishing for anything they can use as ammo.

It's nice that GamesFray goes into some detail about this, but in case it's not entirely clear from the article, this sort of thing (including the "Final Rejection") is entirely, 100% routine for US patent applications.

I might go so far as to say that they are deliberately writing sensational headlines to get clickthroughs, but who would ever dare do such a thing?!

 

[Something whatever]

Good I hope they lose these too , what a freaking dumb and waste of time thing to sue over

 

[BraveDragonWolf]

...This is still a thing?

 

[linuxares]

So which is this one approved patent?

 

[Space_Goddess_Samus_Aran]

Not gamefreak more Gamemaniac

Post automatically merged: Feb 13, 2025

And whats next Nintendo sues em because the games name? Cause they both use P as first letter? I could imagine.

 

[KingVamp]

Yeah, even if you don't like Palworld, other games will get effected, if Nintendo wins.

 

[Kioku]

So which is this one approved patent?

Asking the important question..

I'm concerned that there were more than 20...

 

[Bladexdsl]

oh the losses keep mounting nintapple!

 

[DragonBoy]

I love Nintendo but I'm happy for what happened to them this time. I'm fed up with their practices. I'm going to purchase Palworld now, just so I can give some support to the team and the product!