Nintendo has reportedly failed to secure another patent relating to monster-capturing mechanics, all while its lawsuit against Palworld developer PocketPair continues to rumble on.
Nearly two years ago, the Nintendo-owned Pokemon Company filed a lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair for patent infringement – a legal battle that is still ongoing.
It's been quite a while since it all began to fall into place when Nintendo took its first step in the legal battle back in September of 2024, with Pocketpair allegedly having breached three different patents with Palworld.
The developer has dropped updates that distance its survival game from Pokemon over the years, but the lawsuit is still in progress, and the situation as a whole is far from over.
After securing new patents that don't just affect creature collectors that resemble Pokemon, but various turn-based games, Nintendo is attempting to snag another – this time relating to touchscreen-based monster-catching mechanics… mechanics that are likely relevant to phone games or apps like the still-in-progress project from Pocketpair, Palworld Mobile.
According to Games Fray, though, Nintendo hasn't convinced the Japan Patent Office.
Put simply – because this entire debacle is anything but simple – the JPO examiner who reviewed Nintendo's new application (no. 2026-019762, for anyone wondering) didn't find any "inventive step" over "prior art."
They conclude that the rejected patent, itself a divisional of the prior one regarding monster-catching mechanics, is just a general rule set with nothing technologically original about it.
As for the patent, its only standout quality – at least, when compared to Nintendo's previous filings – is its mention of touchscreen usage, or "a game program executed by a computer of an information processing apparatus equipped with a touch panel." Now, this doesn't mean the company can't have another go at securing the patent.
As the Games Fray analysis reads, Nintendo had "already amended the claims in February and can try to amend them again."
It's all a bit of a mind-boggler if you ask me, but I'd argue that one thing is pretty clear: Nintendo isn't a company that easily backs down, and its ongoing push to secure new patents proves as much.
There's no telling what the future holds, but it's all a bit worrying – doubly so as we've not gotten any word on Palworld Mobile for quite some time. If anything did go forward via the JPO, I suppose the project (and others) could be affected.
Considering the past, it certainly wouldn't be the first time. Palworld already tweaked its original ball-throwing creature-capturing system to appease the lawsuit, for example, and it's not over yet.
All of this – coupled with the egregious Palworld and Pokemon clone that is Pickmos (originally titled "Pickmon") – makes the future particularly difficult to read. I'd wager we'll just need to keep our eyes on Nintendo for its next move.
