Japan's Patent Office Rejects Nintendo's Palworld Patent With "Rarely Seen" Sarcasm

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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.