Japanese patent officials reject one of Nintendo's Pokémon patent applications for being too similar to ARK, Monster Hunter, and—embarrasingly—Pokémon Go

A patent illustration of a character successfully capturing a monster with a Poke Ball.

The trio of patents asserted by Nintendo as the basis for its ongoing lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair represent only a portion of Nintendo's efforts to secure patent protections on creature capturing, battling, and riding mechanics. Last week, however, that effort hit a hurdle: The Japanese Patent Office rejected one of Nintendo's pending patent applications as failing to demonstrate an "inventive step" that would differentiate it from prior art (via GamesFray).

While the patent application in question, JP 2024-031879, isn't directly relevant to the Palworld lawsuit, it's related to patents that are: It's the child application of one of the patents asserted in Nintendo's accusations and is itself the parent application of another. The rejection, therefore, could give Pocketpair a rhetorical opportunity to encourage a similar investigation of the patents it's accused of infringing.