Japan Patent Office denies Nintendo’s capturing patent, indirectly impacting Palworld case
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Key points
- The Japan Patent Office has denied one of Nintendo’s patent claims that talks about capturing a field character using a capture item.
- While this decision does not directly affect the Palworld case, it calls into question the other patents that are used in it.
- The Nintendo vs Pocket Pair case has been ongoing for over a year now.
On Oct. 29, 2025, the Japan Patent Office denied approving Nintendo’s patent-pending application 2024-031879, which was the patent that talks about capturing a field character using a capture item and being able to summon them on the screen and fight with them.
Games Fray reported that the denial was due to the lack of an “inventive step,” which means that the patent simply lacked innovation to exist on its own. The Japan Patent Office has mentioned Ark: Survival Evolved, Monster Hunter 4 and even Pocketpair’s very own Craftopia as “prior art references” that already use a system very similar to the patent.
It’s worth noting that the denied patent is one of the patents that are being used against Palworld. The other two are 2023-204842 and 2024-123560. Games Fray notes that even if the Japan Patent Office’s decision to deny the patent does not affect the Palworld case directly, it infects it indirectly by putting the other patents used by Nintendo to strengthen their case against Palworld in question.
With this denial, Nintendo has the decision to either abandon the patent or persuade the examiner by modifying the patent application with amended claims, according to Games Fray. They noted that Nintendo is most likely to do the latter.
The Nintendo vs. PocketPair lawsuit has been ongoing for over a year, initially filed on Sept. 18, 2024. The lawsuit had already affected Palworld, as evidenced by its removal of certain features that are similar to some of Pokémon’s staple mechanics.
