Nintendo patent tied to Palworld case stays rejected by JPO on July 22

Japan Patent Office kept Nintendo and The Pokemon Company divisional patent application No. 2026-019762 rejected in a notice covered on July 22, 2026. The application describes an in-game monster-capturing system and is tied to the broader legal dispute around Pocketpair's Palworld.

The cited prior-art dispute centers on a 2013 YouTube gameplay video for the indie fangame Pokemon Generations. According to AUTOMATON WEST, JPO used mechanics shown in that video to argue against inventive step, including a flow where selecting a Poke Ball at the lower-right of the screen makes Ash throw it and capture Pikachu if it connects.

Nintendo's side objected that the referenced game and characters infringed its copyrights, and argued that the examiner had treated an infringing product as though it were authorized. The latest notice rejected that line of argument, saying copyright infringement does not determine inventive step under Japanese patent practice.

For players following Palworld, the practical point is narrow but important: one patent route linked to the dispute remains blocked at the JPO examination stage. It does not end the lawsuit by itself. The Reddit thread shared the AUTOMATON WEST report and focused on the unusually sharp wording in the legal exchange: source.