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It seems Japan's Patent Office is getting tired of Nintendo's ongoing patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld as both the Office and Nintendo spar over a particular, related patent application whose rejection is now under review.

Patent Publication No. 2026-077713 describes Pokemon's typical "in-game monster-capturing system," according to Automaton , which also points out that even Japanese patent law professionals are surprised how the Patent Office and Nintendo are sparring over how "inventive" it is to huck a Pokeball, using language "rarely seen in standard patent practice," according to attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara.

The Office was apparently unimpressed by the fact that "selecting a Poke Ball displayed at the bottom right of the screen causes Ash to throw it; if it hits Pikachu, Pikachu can be captured," but it expressed this while citing a gameplay video from 13 years ago, of the unofficial indie game Pokemon: Generations. The video now has new comments reading, "This game defeated Nintendo in court," and, "You saved Palworld."

But it's not that simple! Nintendo fired back at the Patent Office in a counterargument, telling the Office it "acted extremely inappropriately" by citing a copyright-infringing game like Pokemon: Generations in its rejection of its ball-throwing patent.

The Patent Office then came back with a tommy gun, saying "this argument has no bearing on determining inventive step," but if Nintendo really wanted to talk about copyright infringement, "accuracy should take precedence."

"In that case," it continues, "the notice would need to use cumbersome descriptions such as 'an object in the form of a small animal' instead of Pokemon, '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 Poke Ball."

"However," continues the Patent Office, "even with such rephrasing, the logical structure of the grounds for refusal remains unchanged."

Ouch – but Nintendo has a band-aid, and it seemingly successfully filed a petition against the rejection. The Patent Office's website now categorizes Patent Publication No. 2026-077713 as having its "rejection decision under review." This patent isn't the one at the center of Pokemon's legal battle against Palworld, but it does belong to the same patent family, and its approval certainly wouldn't help Palworld.

Japanese patent law expert says Nintendo may have strengthened its claims specifically to target Palworld.

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The world's most powerful solid-fuel rocket just aced its third-ever mission.

Gravity-1, a distinctively squat and stubby rocket , launched Tuesday night (July 21) from the deck of a ship stationed off the coast of Shanghai.

Liftoff occurred at 10:54 p.m. EDT (0254 GMT and 10:54 a.m. Beijing time on July 22), according to the state-run Chinese outlet Xinhua, which further reported that all nine satellites reached "their designated orbits." Details about those satellites were not provided.

Orienspace's Gravity-1 rocket launches nine satellites to orbit from a ship at sea on July 21, 2026. (Image credit: CCTV) Gravity-1 is operated by Orienspace, a company based in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong. The rocket stands about 100 feet (30 meters) tall — less than half the height of SpaceX 's workhorse Falcon 9 vehicle.

Gravity-1 consists of three core stages and four strap-on boosters, all of which feature solid rocket motors. The launcher can haul up to 14,300 pounds (6,500 kilograms) of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO), making it the most powerful solid rocket in the world. (For comparison: The liquid-fueled Falcon 9 can deliver a maximum of 50,265 pounds, or 22,800 kg, to LEO.)

The Chinese vehicle now has three flights under its belt, all of which launched from ships at sea and achieved full mission success. Gravity-1's first two flights occurred in January 2024 and October 2025 .

There won't be such a long gap before Gravity-1 flies again, if all goes to plan. The rocket is expected to launch a batch of Chinese internet satellites in the next few months, according to the state-run outlet CGTN.

And Orienspace's ambitions don't end with Gravity-1. The company is also developing Gravity-2 and Gravity-3, larger, more powerful rockets that will feature liquid-fueled core stages and solid rocket boosters.

Gravity-2 could be ready to fly by the end of the year, CGTN reported. And that vehicle will likely lift off from an ocean-based pad as well.

"Sea launch of solid-propellant rockets paves the way for future launch of liquid rockets at sea," said Gravity-1 chief designer Xu Guoguang, according to CGTN. "We are also considering other methods, such as launching from drilling platforms."

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Tom Hiddleston has carved out a name for himself as one of the biggest stars in the MCU thanks to his enduring performance as Loki . While Hiddleston has been playing the God of Mischief for more than 15 years now, he’s also taken on plenty of other challenging roles, and he’s always on the hunt for a new movie or TV show to expand his filmography. Before he returns as Loki in Avengers: Doomsday this year, Hiddleston will star in and executive produce a new docuseries with Loki executive producer Kevin R. Wright , which launches on Hulu and Disney+ tomorrow, July 23, courtesy of National Geographic . For those who don't want to wait that long, the new epic also premieres tonight on National Geographic's television channel.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Crypto’s US Workforce Is Tiny, But Industry Punches Above Its Weight: Report

The crypto industry may be relatively small in terms of employers — but the economic contribution is big.

That’s according to a new report published by the National Cryptocurrency Association and the Pragmatic Policy Group, which reveals that while only 34,000 people are employed by crypto companies, the industry will contribute $55 billion in 2026 to the U.S. economy.

The report, “Crypto at Work”, which claims to be the first to comprehensively analyze the crypto industry’s footprint in the U.S. labor market, said that jobs in the space also average $133,000 a year — more than double the $64,000 national median wage, and ahead of average pay in tech of and manufacturing.

“Crypto creates many jobs outside the tech industry and directly supports more jobs than key manufacturing industries,” the report said.

Using a standard input-output economic model, PPG calculated that every direct crypto job supports roughly six additional jobs elsewhere in the economy — at suppliers, and at businesses where crypto workers spend their paychecks.

Stacking those indirect and induced jobs on top of the direct total produces a figure of 232,000 jobs in total that the industry supports.

By raw headcount, though, crypto remains a small employer. The report itself benchmarks its 34,000 direct jobs against coffee and tea manufacturing (28,400 jobs) and tobacco manufacturing (10,600 jobs) — hardly the scale of a major American industry.

The industry’s footprint is also geographically lopsided: California, New York, and Texas account for 60% of all crypto jobs, with 57,600, 53,800, and 26,500 respectively.

Heartland states—Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas among them — together support just over 17,000 jobs. The report singles out Colorado and North Dakota as rising hubs, pointing to Colorado’s crypto-friendly tax policy and firms like Riot Platforms and Crusoe Energy, and North Dakota’s flare-gas mining operations and a pilot stablecoin from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.

PPG describes the study as the first comprehensive, economy-wide look at crypto’s labor market impact, built on 2024 Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The firm also flagged a limitation in its own approach: because “a dedicated crypto workforce profile does not yet exist,” it modeled crypto’s financial activities using the occupational mix of broader technology industries rather than traditional finance.

NCA, which funded the research, said it hopes the findings give policymakers “an evidence-based understanding of the sector’s economic contribution.” The nonprofit launched in 2025 to promote what it describes as safe, informed cryptocurrency adoption in the U.S.

This post Crypto’s US Workforce Is Tiny, But Industry Punches Above Its Weight: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo .

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The Bethesda Game Studios Union says it is filing a legal complaint against Bethesda for "continuing to violate labor laws in Canada" by prematurely terminating Canadian employees on July 17—the same day it dropped a huge announcement about the future of Fallout and other games.

The timing of the Bethesda infodump was suspect, to put it politely. Less than two weeks after Xbox announced that it is laying off 3,200 people and dumping four studios, Microsoft-owned Bethesda suddenly decided that it was time to confirm that Fallout 3 and New Vegas are both being remastered, that Obsidian is working on a Fallout game of its own, and on top of all that, that Fallout 5 is in early development too.

Good news as far as it goes, although as I noted at the time, the obvious intent was to reassure (or convince) followers that the loss of hundreds of employees wasn't all that big a deal, and so maybe just don't think about it so much.

The OneBGS union implied that the announcement was a more purposeful smokescreen, however, saying that Bethesda "flooded news sites announcing every expansion, remake, and sequel they could" while simultaneously blindsiding employees at its Montreal office by terminating them months ahead of a previously promised date, and with no negotiated severance.

"Previously, on Monday, July 6th, dozens of employees from Bethesda Game Studios across the US and Canada were told via video call that they were being laid off," the union said in a message on Bluesky. "They were told they would remain employed until September while the company negotiated severance with our union; this at least provided some solace and breathing room.

"However, at the end of the day on Friday July 17th the affected Canadian employees (part of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls teams) received termination letters via email. This was contrary to what they had been told in the Monday calls. These letters stated that the Canadians are to receive the bare legal minimum in terms of severance: eight weeks of pay in lieu of the minimum legal notice, any outstanding vacation pay, etc. They were to also immediately lose their group benefits health insurance."

Bethesda Games Studios’ Montreal workers are being treated especially poorly by XBOX and we won’t stand for it. Here are the details.If this upsets you let Microsoft know: feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/ide...

— @bethesdaunion.bsky.social ( @bethesdaunion.bsky.social.bsky.social ) 2026-07-22T21:17:57.744Z

OneBGS (Bluesky) OneBGS (Bluesky) OneBGS (Bluesky) OneBGS (Bluesky) OneBGS (Bluesky) The Communications Workers of America and CWA Canada unions, of which the Bethesda union is a part, had already filed a joint complaint against Microsoft prior to July 17: CWA Canada president Carmel Smyth told Game Developer at the time that Microsoft had "unlawfully fired people without giving notice to or discussing it with the union as the employer is legally obliged to do when we are in the middle of ongoing bargaining a collective agreement."

Smyth added that the union would continue to file legal challenges against Microsoft as necessary, and the OneBGS union said in today's message that it has done just that.

"Bethesda and Xbox leadership depend on our labor to make them millions, and yet when we do, we are disposed of," the union said in today's message. "The cycle of workers paying for the mistakes of management ends here."

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