Japan Patent Office rejects Nintendo patent for its Pokémon capture mechanic

Nintendo has been denied a patent application that would’ve allowed it to own the mechanic of capturing a character or creature in a game, such as that found in Pokémon games.

As reported by Games Fray, the patent – filed in March 2024, a few months before its high-profile lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair – the Japan Patent Office (JPO) has issued an “office action,” suggesting Nintendo’s attempt to secure the patent has been rejected after an undisclosed third-party submission of prior art “determined the claimed technique lacked an inventive step.”

Though not yet final, it suggests the JPO may reject Nintendo’s patent application given claims the ability to catch creatures existed before the Japanese company filed the patent, including “Studio Wildcard’s ARK, Capcom’s Monster Hunter 4, Pocketpair’s Craftopia, a Japanese browser game named Kantai Collection, and Pokémon Go.” Nintendo will likely now have to amend its filing.

Games Fray suggests this will not directly affect its lawsuit against Palworld, but there could be wider ramifications on its parent patent application, and others predicated on it.

Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair for infringing “multiple patent rights” back in September 2024. At the time, Nintendo was seeking “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.” It recently argued that mods should not count as “prior art.”

Last month, Nintendo secured a new patent in the U.S. that protects a common gameplay mechanic wherein an in-game character to summon another sub-character to support it in battle.