In the latest chapter of the ongoing legal battle between Nintendo and Pocketpair about the similarities between Palworld and Pokemon, Japan Patent Office (JPO) has rejected Nintendo’s patent application. According to a report by Game Fray, the patent revolves around gameplay mechanics that revolve around capturing monsters, and the rejection was on a non-final basis. JPO has cited prior art, noting that games like the ARK series, Monster Hunter 4, and even Pocketpair’s own Craftopia already feature such “monster capture” mechanics.
According to Game Fray’s Florian Mueller, this rejection has presented Nintendo two choices: the company can either abandon the patent application, or try to persuade the patent examiner with a modified version of the patent application that has been submitted again with amended claims. The second choice, notes Mueller, is the more likely outcome in this scenario. Generally speaking, this rejection isn’t expected to have any direct impact on the lawsuit Nintendo has filed against Pocketpair.
Mueller also notes that JPO’s decision even if it weren’t non-final, wouldn’t be binding for the sake of the lawsuit, which is being presided over by judge Motoyuki Nakashima. At most, the proceedings for the lawsuit have been delayed. There is also the question of Nintendo’s moves from earlier this year where it sought a modification to one of its patent filings in the middle of its litigation processes. There are also wider ramifications for the lawsuit owing to the fact that “he patent examiner is now looking at real-world games as opposed to just patent documents and articles considerably ups the ante for Nintendo,” according to Mueller.
Back in July, Nintendo’s moves were considered “weird” by Mueller, who noted that, while it was an attempt by the company to strengthen its case, “the way Nintendo has worded its new claims here is — to put it bluntly — weird, and doesn’t appear likely to solve Nintendo’s problems in this dispute.”
The “weird”-ness of this attempted modification came down to the fact that, according to a machine translated version of the patent filing, its wording was “extremely contorted”. This was apparently done in an effort to try and make the patent sound more complicated than it actually. This is evident in a part of the machine-translated patent quoted below.
“…and even when any boarding character other than the aerial boarding character capable of moving in the air is the currently selected boarding character and a first operation input is given when the player character is in the air, the computer causes the aerial boarding character to appear in the virtual space, and causes the player character to board the aerial boarding character instead of the currently selected boarding character from among the boarding characters…“
Attention was especially brought to the use of the phrase “even when”, with Mueller noting that it isn’t often found in patent applications as the words are “too emphatic and subjective”. Even the word “even” is considered as having no place in patent claims.
In the meantime, you can check out Palworld on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out more details about its recently-kicked off Halloween update while you’re at it as you get ready for the Once Human x Palworld crossover event going live today.
