The Japan Patent Office has issued a non-final refusal for a Nintendo patent application that was linked to the company’s legal fight over Palworld, saying the filing lacked an inventive step. The application in question is numbered 2024-031879. The refusal notes that elements of the claim already appeared in earlier games, with a third-party submission pointing to titles like ARK, Monster Hunter 4, Craftopia, Kantai Collection, and Pokémon GO as prior art predating Nintendo’s December 2021 priority date.
Because the decision was non-final, Nintendo still has options. The company can abandon the application or file a new submission with amended claims. That mirrors an earlier pattern in which Nintendo has pursued several related patents tied to monster capture and movement schemes; for background on those earlier filings, read the piece on monster capture and the one on switching between flying objects.
The prior-art finding means the patent office viewed the idea as an obvious combination of existing techniques rather than a new invention. That assessment has been a recurring flashpoint in the wider dispute between Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and Pocketpair, the publisher of Palworld. A patent expert previously argued that Nintendo’s approach to prior art, especially around mods, was legally weak; that debate is still relevant here.
This development reduces one legal avenue Nintendo was pursuing in Japan, but it does not end the larger court battles or other patent filings. If Nintendo chooses to refile with narrower claims, the company will need to show a concrete technical difference from those preexisting systems. If it does not, the rejection could stand and narrow Nintendo’s options in Japan.
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