In the order, Squires writes that he has “determined that substantial new questions of patentability have arisen,” referencing prior publications known as Yabe and Taura, older patents describing scenarios where a companion fights alongside the player, either automatically or under manual input. That framing challenges whether Nintendo’s newly granted US 12,403,397 (filed in 2023, granted September 2025) meaningfully advances the state of the art or is already anticipated by past work.

The review follows weeks of criticism from IP commentators who argued the grant appeared overly broad and insufficiently tested against decades of games with similar mechanics. Reporting has also emphasized how rare it is for a USPTO director to intervene without a third party formally petitioning, a sign that the office wants to stress-test the patent before it cascades into wider enforcement. While the application is discussed through a Pokémon lens, its language is platform-agnostic, which is why developers across genres have watched this case closely.

What happens next is procedural: examiners revisit the claims against cited prior art; Nintendo can amend or argue; and the office may confirm, narrow, or invalidate portions of the patent. For now, nothing changes legally, but the burden of proof has shifted back to the rights holder to showcase why these claims should stand as written.

Bottom line: If prior art holds, expect this patent to be narrowed, reducing risk for look-alike mechanics. If it survives largely intact, Nintendo gains a potent lever in future disputes.

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.

Noting that Pocketpair has kept up a strong defense against Nintendo’s accusations, the owner of the Pokemon IP had made modifications of the three patents over which it was suing the Palworld developer. Mueller wrote that, traditionally, litigants in a lawsuit don’t tend to make changes to their patents in the middle of a lawsuit “unless they feel the patent is at a fairly high risk of being deemed invalid in its original form.”

While litigants do sometimes “thread the needle” about this by amending their patents while also winning the lawsuit under the terms of the original patents, Mueller has said that “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.”

Quoting a machine translated version of the patent, Mueller also noted that the wording of the patent is “extremely contorted” in an effort to try and make things sound more complicated than they really are. He believes that this was done in an effort to obfuscate things. Check out the part of the patent quoted by Mueller 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…“

The use of the word “even when” is also seemingly noteworthy, according to Mueller, since it is normally not found in patent claims. Describing the word as “too emphatic and subjective,” Mueller noted that the word “even” has no place in patent claims.

“I’ve been following patent litigation for 15 years (for the better part of that period as a consultant) and have seen many claims that were amended, but I’ve never seen ‘even when’ or ‘even if’ in a patent claim,” wrote Mueller. “It’s bizarre.”

Ultimately, Mueller believes that Nintendo’s efforts in Japan are “almost a Hail Mary” in what he describes as a desperate attempt by the company to win its lawsuit against Pocketpair. While the company might be on the back foot in Japan with regards to the lawsuit, however, its patent efforts in the US are seemingly not as weird.

While still making use of tautological phrasing like “selected based on the selection operation”, the company’s patent applications in the US have seemingly been presented in overall more sensible language, according to Mueller.

In the meantime, check out details about the Tides of Terraria update that was released for Palworld just last month. Palworld is available on PC, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

The most expected title is Pokemon Legends: Z-A, announced for Nintendo Switch “systems.” Set in Lumiose City, it’s out later this year, with gameplay and further details yet to be revealed. Regardless of potential announcements, Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb alleged that the focus will be on Nintendo Switch titles instead of Switch 2 exclusives.

These will be playable on the latter due to its backward compatibility but don’t expect any exclusives for the new console. One such title, codename Gaia, was leaked in October 2024 and seemingly kicks off Gen 10. Codename Synapse, an MMO from ILCA, is also in the works, though it’s unknown how it connects to the franchise. As always, stay tuned for updates next week.

As per Pocketpair, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have alleged that the company has infringed on three patents. As you’d expect, they are seeking an injunction against Palworld, which would result in a suspension of the game’s sales, as well as payments of 5 million yen (on top of late payments and compensation for a portion of the damages) to Nintendo and The Pokemon Company each.

“We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings,” Pocketpair writes. “Please note that we will refrain from responding individually to inquiries regarding this case. If any matters arise that require public notice, we will announce them on our website.”

Previously, in the immediate aftermath of being sued, the independent Japanese company said that it would do its best to “ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.” Read more on that through here.

Beyond that, it seems the leak also includes hefty amounts of new information on both past and future Pokemon titles (via Nintendo Everything), including the source code for Pokemon Black and White 2, as well as Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver. As for games that are in the pipeline, it seems like development on the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Z-A (which is allegedly being developed under the codename Ikkaku) has all but wrapped up.

It is not, however, the only major Pokemon title that Game Freak currently has in the work. The next mainline Pokemon title – or Gen 10, which is what fans of the series refer to its next batch of mainline titles as – is also in the works under the codename Gaia. Interestingly enough, it is being developed for hardware referred to as “Ounce”, which seems to be the codename for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 (or whatever it ends up being called).

Finally, it seems like an MMO codenamed Synapse is also in the works, with ILCA – the studio that developed Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl – also being involved in the project.

In a statement, after acknowledging the lawsuit, Pocketpair says it is “unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon”, since it has “not been notified of such details”. Later in the statement, the studio remarks that having to dedicate “significant time” to the lawsuit rather than focusing on the game is “truly unfortunate”, but says that it will do its best to “ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.”

“Pocketpair is a small indie game company based in Tokyo. Our goal as a company has always been to create fun games,” Pocketpair’s official statement reads. “We will continue to pursue this goal because we know that our games bring joy to millions of gamers around the world. Palworld was a surprise success this year, both for gamers and for us. We were blown away by the amazing response to the game and have been working hard to make it even better for our fans. We will continue improving Palworld and strive to create a game that our fans can be proud of.

“It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.

“We apologize to our fans and supporters for any worry or discomfort that this news has caused.”

Palworld is available in early access on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. Within roughly a month of its release, Pocketpair announced that it had crossed 25 million players across all platforms.

Instantly upon Palworld’s release, there were many who wondered if Nintendo and The Pokemon Company would be taking legal action against developer Pocketpair, not least because of how trigger happy they typically tend to be in that arena, though in July, Pocketpair stated that it had received no official complaints from either company on that front. That, it seems, has changed.

Nintendo has confirmed that it is suing Palworld developer Pocketpair for patent infringement, for which it is seeking injunction and compensation. A patent infringement lawsuit was filed against the developer jointly by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company in the Tokyo District Court earlier today, on September 18.

“This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights,” Nintendo’s release reads.

“Nintendo will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years.”

Palworld is currently available in early access on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. As of February, it had over 25 million players across all platforms. As per Pocketpair, the game was developed on a budget of $6.7 million, going on to make “tens of billions of yen” in profit. Read more on that through here.

In total, the company is looking to recruit in a total of 37 open positions, across disciplines ranging from programming and design to art and more. Several of the open positions specifically mention that they will be focused on development of Pokemon titles, with some being dedicated to new internal IP, others to research and development, and more.

As of March earlier this year, Game Freak had a total of 207 employees, so adding 37 new roles to that would represent growth of nearly 18 percent for the studio. It’s worth mentioning, however, that several of the new positions are set to be contract roles instead of permanent ones.

With the Nintendo Switch’s successor set to be announced (and presumably released) in the coming months, it’s no surprise that studios focused on developing Switch titles are ramping up and expanding, especially amidst insistent reports that the upcoming console will support 4K and thus require more complex development pipelines.

After Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s controversial launch in 2022, The Pokemon Company and Nintendo had to issue an apology for the technical state of the launch, before assuring later that it was looking into ways to improve the state of future releases while still maintaining a packed release schedule. Earlier this year, reports claimed that the company was looking to take serious steps to avoid the technical issues that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet faced at launch.

You can find a full list of Game Freak’s open positions below:

• Planner
• Planner (scenario/setting creation)
• [Contract] Sound Planner (Pokemon series development)
• Character Model
• Effects
• Background Model
• Cutscenes
• Section Director
• Lighting Artist
• Human Motion
• Pokemon Models
• 2D Art Designer
• 2D Art Designer: Background
• [Contract] 2D Artwork Designer (Pokemon series development)
• Project Manager
• [Contract] Assistant Project Manager
• Game Programmer
• Game Programmer: Communication System
• [Contract] Game Programmer: Characters (New IP)
• [Contract] Game Programmer: Events (New IP)
• [Contract] UI Programmer (New IP)
• [Contract] Communication Game Programmer (Pokemon series development)
• [Contract] Unity Engineer (Assigned to R&D Department)
• [Contract] Animation Programmer (Assigned to R&D Department)
• [Contract] Infrastructure Engineer (Server)
• [Contract] Information Systems: Windows Infrastructure Engineer
• R&D Programmer: Communication Systems
• R&D Programmer: Animation
• R&D Programmer: Machine Learning Engineer
• R&D Programmer: Graphics
• R&D Programmer: Systems
• R&D Programmer: Battle Systems
• R&D Programmer: Libraries
• Technical Artist: Procedural
• Technical Artist: Tools
• HR and Recruitment
• [Contract] IT Help Desk

As per Merrick, Pokemon Works’ offices are situated in the same building that also houses the offices of independent support studio ILCA, which served as the lead developer on 2021’s Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and 2020’s Pokemon Home.

However, it’s unknown whether working closely with ILCA on future titles is going to be a mandate for Pokemon Works. In fact, currently, it’s unknown what exact purpose the newly-established subsidiary will be serving.

Pokemon games in the Nintendo Switch era have frequently been criticized for the poor technical states they have launched in. Following backlash against Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, The Pokemon Company said it was having internal conversations about how best to ensure future instalments hit a certain bar of quality, without having to significantly alter the series’ release schedule. Earlier this year, it was claimed that the company had taken criticism for Scarlet and Violet seriously, and was taking steps to ensure that similar issues were avoided in future titles.

The next mainline Pokemon game, Pokemon Legends: Z-A, was announced last month. Set entirely within the Kalos region’s Lumiose City, it will launch sometime in 2025.

This company is set up in Shinjuku in Tokyo in the same building as ILCA.

— Joe Merrick (@JoeMerrick) March 11, 2024