Nintendo argues mods should not count as “prior art” in Pocketpair patent lawsuit

Nintendo has argued that mods should not count as “prior art” in its patent lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair.

According to Games Fray, which sent a “neutral person” to inspect the Nintendo v. Pocketpair case file, Nintendo does not want mods to be recognised as prior art in the lawsuit, which the publication explained is “previously published material that could be held against its patents.”

In February 2025, Pocketpair filed multiple “preparatory briefs,” according to Games Fray, arguing that Nintendo’s patent lawsuit shouldn’t have been granted as there was prior art “before the relevant priority date that already covered what Nintendo claimed to have invented.”

Pocketpair’s invalidity arguments pointed to a number of mods as proof of this, including the Dark Souls 3 meets Pokémon mod, Pocket Souls, the Pixelmon mod for Minecraft, and the NukaMon mod for Fallout 4.

Nintendo has argued, however, that mods are not prior art as they cannot run independently, unlike the games they run on.

“This does not convince us from a patent law point of view,” Games Fray said. “The question is not whether a gamer who sees the game would likely use the mod or the other way round. What matters is whether game makers looking for inspiration would turn to mods. Of course they would.”

The judge in the case will decide whether mods do, in fact, count as prior art, but Games Fray reports that its sister site, ip fray, noted that courts usually reject these attempts to “narrow the pool for prior art references in unreasonable ways.”

Games Fray also reported that there “clearly are delays” with the case and “it looks like nothing will happen in that litigation during the remainder of this year.”

Last week, Pocketpair announced it is aiming for Palworld to exit early access in 2026, despite the ongoing lawsuit.