With the successful launch of Palworld’s 1.0 update, Pocketpair has achieved another victory. The Japan Patent Office (JPO) has denied Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s patent concerning the alleged infringement of its monster-catching mechanics. After initially rejecting the claims, the JPO re-examined application No. 2026-019762, rejecting many of Nintendo’s assertions once more.
The rejection notice, originally in Japanese, has been translated into English for better understanding. We will delve into some of Nintendo’s recent arguments and the JPO’s responses related to Palworld’s game mechanics. These insights are based on a translated rejection notice. For more detailed information, please refer to the original rejection notices.
JPO dismisses Nintendo’s patent in Palworld dispute
On April 21, 2026, the JPO issued a Notice of Refusal after using gameplay from Pokemon Generations as a primary reference for prior art and gave Nintendo 60 days to present an opinion. Nintendo subsequently filed a counterclaim, arguing that a fan-made Pokémon game should be considered due to copyright infringement, but this was also rejected on July 7, 2026, under Refusal of Refusal.
The JPO clarified that copyright law and patent examination provisions differ, indicating that copyright infringement does not affect whether a reference can evaluate a patent’s inventiveness. The focus is on whether an invention was publicly available before the patent filing, not its legal authorization.
Nintendo also contended that adapting monster-catching gameplay to touchscreen devices required innovation. However, the JPO highlighted that games like ARK Mobile and PUBG Mobile also exist on PC, implying that adapting them to touchscreens is straightforward, and thus rejected this claim as well.
Furthermore, the JPO stated that a competent game developer could easily integrate various game mechanics from different games as part of their creative process, which does not constitute an invention. Consequently, 16 out of 24 claims made by Nintendo were rejected, upholding the previous rejection.
A similar situation occurred the previous year when Nintendo’s Pokémon summoning-and-fighting patent underwent a re-examination by the USPTO. Following the JPO’s decision, Nintendo can appeal the refusal with the JPO Commissioner within the next three months. Meanwhile, they might revise and refine the patent, concentrating on the eight claims that were not rejected.
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Edited by Mayank Singh Rathour
