Palworld Patent Battle Escalates as JPO Rejects Nintendo Bid

By Sakib Khandokar, Lead Analyst Published Jul 22, 2026, 9:32 PM UTC 2 min read

Rumor Report Official source checked High confidence

Palworld Patent Battle Escalates as JPO Rejects Nintendo Bid

Japan's Patent Office is pushing back against Nintendo during an ongoing patent dispute, with a specific monster-capturing patent application remaining rejected while both sides spar over its inventiveness. While the contested filing is not the primary patent at the center of Nintendo's ongoing lawsuit against Palworld, it belongs to the same patent family, meaning its final standing could influence the broader legal environment surrounding the survival game.

Quick Facts

Game: Palworld (PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X)
Disputed Filing: Patent Publication No. 2026-077713
Current Status: Rejection decision under review by the Japan Patent Office
Key Source Cited: A 13-year-old gameplay video of the indie game Pokemon: Generations

The Dispute Over Patent Publication No. 2026-077713

Patent Publication No. 2026-077713 covers a typical in-game monster-capturing system where a player selects an item displayed on screen, throws it at a creature, and attempts a capture. According to Japanese patent law professionals, the intensity of the sparring between the Japan Patent Office and Nintendo over what constitutes an "inventive" step in this mechanic is unusually sharp.

During the review process, the Patent Office cited a 13-year-old gameplay video of the unofficial indie game Pokemon: Generations to question the novelty of the mechanics. Nintendo fired back in a counterargument, telling the Office that citing a copyright-infringing game was "extremely inappropriately" handled.

The Patent Office responded by stating that the gameplay video's copyright status had no bearing on determining an inventive step, while adding that if copyright accuracy was the standard, descriptions would simply need to substitute specific character names for descriptive terms—such as calling a Poke Ball "a spherical object with a red upper half and a white lower half"—without changing the underlying logical structure of why the patent was refused.

Next Steps in the Review Process

Following the sharp exchanges, Nintendo filed a petition against the rejection. The Japan Patent Office's official website now lists Patent Publication No. 2026-077713 as having its rejection decision under review. Japanese patent law experts note that Nintendo may have strengthened its claims specifically with survival titles in mind, making the final outcome of this related patent family an important detail to watch for players following the multi-platform title.