Nintendo’s Palworld patent has been rejected by Japan’s patent office — for the second time. The Japan Patent Office (JPO) upheld its rejection of a divisional patent application tied to monster-capturing mechanics in mid-July 2026, dismissing Nintendo’s counter-arguments in language observers described as unusually direct. The rejection is the latest setback in Nintendo’s ongoing legal dispute with Pocketpair, the developer of Palworld.
The original rejection came in late April 2026. Nintendo filed objections. In mid-July 2026, the JPO dismissed those objections and confirmed the rejection stands — doing so in language that observers in Japan described as unusually direct and pointed for a formal administrative notice.
The patent in question is a divisional application within the same patent family Nintendo has been using in its lawsuit against Pocketpair at the Tokyo District Court. That lawsuit, filed in September 2024, accused Pocketpair of infringing on Nintendo’s patents covering the mechanic of throwing a sphere to capture creatures. This JPO rejection is about a separate, newer filing for related technology — it doesn’t invalidate the registered patent already being argued in court. The core lawsuit continues.
The JPO’s reasoning for rejection cited prior art — meaning the technology or concept already existed in earlier works before Nintendo’s application. The examiner pointed to several games: ARK: Survival Evolved, Monster Hunter 4, Craftopia, and Pokémon GO. But the source that drew the most attention was a fan-made game — a Pokemon project called Pokemon Generations — which was cited alongside major commercial titles as demonstrating the mechanic already existed in the public domain.
The use of a fan game as prior art in a major corporate patent case is rare and legally significant. Nintendo’s own intellectual property — modified and made by players without authorization — was cited as evidence that the mechanic Nintendo sought to protect was not original. That’s an uncomfortable position for the company.
More than 20 Nintendo patent applications in related areas have now been rejected by the JPO, though each filing involves different claims and is evaluated separately. Nintendo now has three months to petition for a formal trial against the JPO’s decision. Whether the company pursues that is not yet known.
Meanwhile, Pocketpair has not been passive. The studio had already modified Palworld to remove the Pal Sphere throwing mechanic that Nintendo specifically targeted in the lawsuit, narrowing the scope of what the court can actually evaluate. That decision significantly complicated Nintendo’s case, since the version of the game currently available no longer operates in the way the suit describes.
Palworld launched in January 2024 and sold more than 25 million copies within weeks of release. Its monster-capturing and creature-combat systems drew immediate comparisons to Pokémon, though Pocketpair maintained the game was designed independently. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed suit eight months after the game’s release.
The JPO patent rejections do not settle the lawsuit or determine its outcome. The Tokyo District Court case follows a separate process, and a court ruling on the registered patent remains possible. But each rejection by the JPO gives Pocketpair additional evidence that the mechanics Nintendo is trying to protect may not have been Nintendo’s to protect in the first place.
Nintendo has faced scrutiny for its aggressive intellectual property enforcement in recent years, with decisions around the Nintendo Switch 2 and its broader legal activity drawing criticism. The Palworld case has been among the most widely watched because of the scale of the game and the fundamental question it raises: whether general gameplay mechanics can be patented at all.