The legal battle between Nintendo and Pocketpair’s Palworld rages on, and it’s about to get even bigger depending on whether the Pokemon owner gets their way. Nintendo is now poised to establish more of its Japan-based patents on the US soil and legal system seemingly to combat Palworld‘s international presence.
The report came from GamesFray, which collated Nintendo’s recent efforts to establish patent claims with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Unfortunately for Nintendo, the USPTO rejected 22 out of its 23 patent claims for the US legal system. The one Nintendo patent that managed to push through on February 11 pertained to video game methods of “capturing characters” and their corresponding numerical chance for catching.
It’s basically a copyright protection for one of Pokemon‘s signature gameplay features, but this time on US soil instead of just Japan. Currently, the status of this patent, officially designated as US patent 12,220,638, is not yet available for viewing on Google but it will soon. Nintendo notably filed it back in July 2024, according to GameFray.
So while most of Nintendo’s patents for US laws were rejected, it appears they’re not about to quit.
“They’re clearly trying to get there, but it looks more difficult than they might have thought at the outset. For example, the fact that the USPTO is prepared to grant only one out of 23 claims of one of those patents is a setback for Nintendo. But they are fighting,” according to legal expert, Florian Mueller.
So depending on how well Nintendo penetrates the US copyright laws with its Japan-based patents, there could be more trouble ahead not just for Palworld but other Pokemon-like games.
Why is Nintendo Doing This?
For those who are out of the loop, Nintendo has filed a rather scathing lawsuit for patent and copyright infringement against Pocketpair for their Pokemon-esque survival game, Palworld. This happened back in 2024 under the Japanese legal system, and the legal battle is still ongoing. Palworld has so far had to change a few of its mechanics to avoid further complications and difficulties.
Previously, those who followed both companies thought that the copyright battle would only be limited to Japan since Pocketpair is based in Japan. However, Nintendo now appears to be branching out its patent claims to the US to further pursue Palworld or other Pokemon-like games on a different ground.
With how encompassing or general some of Nintendo’s patent claims are (such as mounts), some in the gaming community are worried about other games, most especially Pokemon-like games with US-based developers. Hence, sentiments like the highly-upvoted Reddit comments below are now common due to Nintendo’s legal aggressions.
