The Japan Patent Office has rejected Nintendo’s monster-catching patent application after an examiner cited footage from a 2013 Pokemon fan game as prior art. The decision is significant because it uses an unofficial Pokemon project as evidence against an application from the same patent family as the two patents Nintendo is seeking to enforce against Palworld developer Pocketpair.
In spring 2026, Nintendo filed a patent application covering a touchscreen-based monster-catching system that some industry watchers interpreted as a potential threat to Palworld Mobile. The filing, identified as application No. 2026-019762, was not directly involved in the ongoing lawsuit against Pocketpair, although Nintendo described it as belonging to the same patent family. It covered mechanics including touchscreen movement, capture items, summoned battle creatures, command selection, and catching field characters both in and outside combat.
Nintendo’s patent lawsuit against Palworld gets a preliminary end date, as well as some changes suggesting it’s falling apart.
After the application was initially rejected in late April 2026, Nintendo received another rejection in mid-July 2026, according to Japan Patent Office filings obtained by Games Fray. The examiner maintained that Nintendo’s claims lacked an inventive step because they combined gameplay and touchscreen techniques…
