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.

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[ChronosNotashi]

I expect someone out there has already probably tried to make a free or open source game using the "nemesis" mechanic, or even a game explicitly for use outside of the areas where Warner Bros has patent protection, just to prove that they can. And that no one paid any attention because that alone isn't enough to make a game worth playing.

Have to agree with you here. If there are any free/indie games that have attempted to make the "Nemesis" mechanic, or do one that's close but still mechanically distinct enough that they don't violate the patent, I haven't seen or heard of them. You'd think given how much people bring up the Nemesis System patent in unrelated patent conflicts that there'd be a lot more fanfare for a game like that.

Right, but that's different for precisely the reason you mentioned: load screens are practically a thing of the past. The nemesis system is a patent on an in-game mechanic, so it will always be an annoyance that we can't see it get more use in other developers' games. It's a perfect example of why the concept is rotten to the core. Nintendo could patent all of Pokemon's mechanics and then not release another Pokemon game for forty years. Not that they would, but they could, and that demonstrates how easily the patent system is abused by large companies.

To be fair, Nintendo did have a patent for digital joysticks in Japan (you know, the kind of joystick that you use a touchscreen to interact with), but they didn't prevent other people from using the concept. It was more or less a free-use patent that Nintendo likely filed to prevent mobile game companies, as well as non-video game-focused companies that work with mobile devices, from filing and abusing the mechanic (funny enough, one mobile game company tried to do that, as said company attempted to patent the same concept and charge royalty fees for it).

Plus, just because something's patented for a specific way of use doesn't mean that all methods for using that something are forbidden. I've personally played a couple Flash games during the years Bandai Namco had the loading screen minigame patent, and Flash games got around that patent by only having the minigame at the first loading screen (i.e. when the game files were being loaded), which, iirc, was not part of the patent (which was most likely focused on the loading screens players encountered during menu <-> gameplay transitions).

At least for patents in the U.S. that are approved, you usually can't violate them by accident, since they need to be worded in a way that the patented concept can't be duplicated exactly by someone else without them knowing the finer details. Would have to consult someone well-versed in Japanese patent laws to know how they operate there, but do note that Nintendo isn't the only Japanese company that patents at many mechanics as they can in all regions. (Looking at you, Konami and Sony - the latter of which filed a number of patents just last month, including a patent for AI that predicts player behavior (so basically trying to patent the equivalent of rollback netcode)).

 

[yoyoyo69]

We also don't hear a darn thing about any other related patent applications that have been refused over the years.


This is how the patents work in general and if you read the actual article (which is hardly without its flaws even aside from the sensationalist headline) you'd see at least three other related patents were granted.

I agree, god knows what nonsense they've applied for unsuccessfully in the past.

I'm unsure if you've misunderstood my previous comments. Patent trolls register a patent, simply to hoard it, to profit from the work of others.

I haven't questioned the patent system, I'm questioning Nintendo's morality. They are abusing the patent system in an extremely anticompetitive way. What's worse is they are one of the largest gaming organisations, trying to cripple and indy studio (yes they made a lot of money with their lucky break, but were indy)

 

[Myoon_Island]

I love Nintendo, but really? Nintendo, you already have lots of money, suing small companies won't really make you soooo much richer.....

 

[Kwyjor]

I agree, god knows what nonsense they've applied for unsuccessfully in the past.

I'm unsure if you've misunderstood my previous comments.

And I wasn't referring to Nintendo. There are surely many thousands of other people we've never heard about who have attempted to apply for video game related patents we've also never heard about. Maybe some of them even got granted, but the people who got them weren't in any kind of position to enforce them. Nintendo doesn't automatically get a pass just because they're Nintendo.

Patent trolls register a patent, simply to hoard it, to profit from the work of others.

That is a very expansive definition of "patent troll". Registering a patent is a lengthy and expensive process and people are not likely to go through the process without a good expectation of return. A more suitable definition of "patent troll" is a company that buys up other old patents from other companies and then attempts to shake down people who might somehow tangentially be infringing. But why quibble with semantics when we can just hurl all linguistic conventions aside and use "patent troll" to refer to anyone we don't like?

What's worse is they are one of the largest gaming organisations, trying to cripple and indy studio (yes they made a lot of money with their lucky break, but were indy)

I haven't been following the wholly Sony-involvement angle, but it sets them well apart from the typical "indy studio".

 

[yoyoyo69]

And I wasn't referring to Nintendo. There are surely many thousands of other people we've never heard about who have attempted to apply for video game related patents we've also never heard about. Maybe some of them even got granted, but the people who got them weren't in any kind of position to enforce them. Nintendo doesn't automatically get a pass just because they're Nintendo.

That is a very expansive definition of "patent troll". Registering a patent is a lengthy and expensive process and people are not likely to go through the process without a good expectation of return. A more suitable definition of "patent troll" is a company that buys up other old patents from other companies and then attempts to shake down people who might somehow tangentially be infringing. But why quibble with semantics when we can just hurl all linguistic conventions aside and use "patent troll" to refer to anyone we don't like?


I haven't been following the wholly Sony-involvement angle, but it sets them well apart from the typical "indy studio".

Haha so I guess I was correct in my assumption, you're just arguing with yourself.

Lol, have a happy life

 

[LightBeam]

It's just Nintendo shitting their pants when Pocketpair partnered with Sony.

Nintendo see that as a threat and instead of making a game that no one could dream to replicate (like how they did with.... idk .... Fucking Zelda lmao), they resort to such pitiful tactics. They're just bitches because they can't out Gamefreak because they partially own the IP, but they also don't want/can't make another "groundbreaking" entry by themselves like they did with Zelda (or any other franchise they made)

They are cursed, because they own the most profitable franchise ever made, but they just partially own it so they can't do anything they want. So when a competitor gets to have something that people actually like, they do whatever they have left : being bitches.

I mean, why else they could make stuff like BoTW/ToTk, all the Metroid (Prime) games, Pikmin 4 (with basically each entry being bigger than the previous), the list goes on ... but not do the same for Pokémon ? They have control of these franchises, but somehow the biggest franchise ever has been criticized for more than a decade now, and they can't make it better because Gamefreak equally owns it, and they are profoundly incompetent.

 

[Bladexdsl]

they still cling to archaic beliefs and laws that they got away with in the 80's and 90's but times have changed you can't just do whatever you want and get away with it anymore. so either change your ways or get the fuck out of the handheld console business and put your games on pc.

 

[Retrojunkies]

Look at nintendo focusing on what it does best sue people.

How they manage to get away with claiming per country/region is ridiculous, when it should be just over it as one product.

But hey ho these cunts need to fund their inferior last gen console production somehow.

 

[chrisrlink]

I'm just glad they used their damn brains and realized it's a blatant case of patent trolling

 

[daddu3]

Finally, some much-needed pushback against monopoilization with these patents. But I kinda can't help demanding more. Nintendo and Pokemon Company breaking down trying to get control over all this needs to reach a fever pitch preferably.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

I'd like to take this chance to remind people that SEGA had a patent on adjustable cameras controlled by the player, so Nintendo has been knowingly infringing patents for years.

Edit: I think they had it but it might've been revoked or lapsed.

 

[Cailino]

*The* American continent? There are two of them

 

[Xzi]

So it's actually even worse than it sounded initially, because all 23 patents they applied for were related to mechanisms for mounting a creature/vehicle. Nintendo wanted to monopolize every single aspect of mounts, despite the fact that they've been used commonly in games ever since the early 2000s.

 

[ShadowOne333]

So it's actually even worse than it sounded initially, because all 23 patents they applied for were related to mechanisms for mounting a creature/vehicle. Nintendo wanted to monopolize every single aspect of mounts, despite the fact that they've been used commonly in games ever since the early 2000s.

That's how much of an asshole Nintendo is as a company.
Worst thing is, that kind of shit went through in Japan, despite many other franchises doing it before Nintendo, and worse, decades ago before then even got to it.

 

[Bladexdsl]

they've managed to get away with it for decades but suck shit to them the industry has changed they are not gods (but try telling that to their idiot fanbase) and cannot do whatever the fuck they want anymore. they either deal with the competition or step aside and let someone make some real games instead of remaking the same tired boring old shit over and over and charging full price for it.

 

[HiradeGirl]

*The* American continent? There are two of them

I thought "America" was taught as a whole only ONE continent everywhere outside USA.

The South and North America "continents" is utter b------- schools teach only in USA. Or so I thought.

 

[ShadowOne333]

I thought "America" was taught as a whole only ONE continent everywhere outside USA.

The South and North America "continents" is utter b------- schools teach only in USA. Or so I thought.

Amen to that

 

[Tortitamal]

going after patent infringement was a shitty move by Nintendo. They should have done a copyright claim on the designs since is so obvious that the palworld monsters are pokemon copies.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

That's how much of an asshole Nintendo is as a company.
Worst thing is, that kind of shit went through in Japan, despite many other franchises doing it before Nintendo, and worse, decades ago before then even got to it.

What makes it worse is Nintendo infringed on some of SEGA's patents (player controlled zoomable camera), and then eventually Nintendo argued the patent was bogus and it was revoked.

Nintendo isn't only shitty in this way though. They're just dicks in general. So many stories about what a prick Miyamoto is. Taking credit for other people's ideas (auto jumping from ledges in Zelda was allegedly proposed by Aonuma because he's terrible at platforming games, Miyamoto says it was his own idea that just came to him while eating breakfast), dismissing great ideas because he can't wrap his head around them (Mario Kart Super Circuit was supposed to introduce underwater gameplay but Miyamoto said "Karts wouldn't work under water" but apparently he thinks propeller hats can let fat Italian plumbers fly through the air).

Oh and the whole Majora's Mask thing. Koizumi's planned game was cancelled, then Miyamoto basically interrupted the Majora's dev team by rambling on about personal stories to try to boost morale, everybody just found him annoying.

It's a good thing he's barely involved in most things anymore. I'm surprised so many projects were successful with that arrogant manbaby in charge.

 

[Kwyjor]

So it's actually even worse than it sounded initially, because all 23 patents they applied for were related to mechanisms for mounting a creature/vehicle.

No, they did not apply for 23 patents. They applied for several patents, some of which have been granted, and one patent examiner working for the Patent Office rejected 22 claims in one patent application, a thing that is entirely normal in the patent application process and probably actually happened over the course of those other patents getting granted.

they've managed to get away with it for decades but suck shit to them the industry has changed they are not gods (but try telling that to their idiot fanbase) and cannot do whatever the fuck they want anymore. they either deal with the competition or step aside and let someone make some real games instead of remaking the same tired boring old shit over and over and charging full price for it.

Some day maybe Nintendo will be bankrupt and everyone everywhere all over the Internet is going to have a delightful time explaining all the things they did wrong and totally had it coming all along from the very beginning and never did anything right ever.

But they've lasted this long, and I don't think that day is coming soon.

What makes it worse is Nintendo infringed on some of SEGA's patents (player controlled zoomable camera), and then eventually Nintendo argued the patent was bogus and it was revoked.

What exactly are you referring to?