Nintendo Patent Push Against Hit Game Palworld Hits Roadblock in US

Nintendo is facing an uphill battle in its U.S. patent fight against Palworld creator Pocketpair, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office rejecting 22 out of 23 patent claims, according to gaming news site GamesFray.

While Nintendo has successfully obtained one patent covering character capture mechanics, the company is seeking additional protections related to gameplay features like "smooth switching of riding objects." An attorney representing Nintendo has requested a meeting with patent examiners to discuss the rejected claims. The patent dispute, which began in Japan where Nintendo is seeking $66,000 in damages, could have broader implications for the gaming industry if successful

Application so broad

[BigFire]

It'll be hard to enforce it, not to mention many instance of prior arts already exist for stuff they're trying to patent.

Re:Application so broad

[Moryath]

That never stopped a deep-pocketed game company from being bullies. Remember, Wizards of the Coast once got a patent on "turning a card sideways" or "placing it on top of another card," which had prior art going back to Hoyle's Rules of Games from the year 1742.

grumpycatgood.jpg

[spazmonkey]

People start patenting basic game mechanics like 'riding on things', game industry is gonna get balkanized up and shut down fast.
At least until someone buys up the patents for all the mechanics, and then we get one game dev with a monopoly on publishing games.
None of this is good.

Re:

[Rinnon]

To be fair, what's good is that 22/23 were thrown out.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

Patents expire. They can't be enforced forever. Not that "video game mechanic" patents are a good idea, but they aren't as bad as copyright.

a novel method of annoying olds over thirty years

[Pseudonymous Powers]

I'm sorry, they're trying to shut down "Gun-Totin' Pokemon Feat. My Neighbor Totoro" not as copyright infringement but as PATENT infringement? Stupid fucking assholes.

Re:

[EvilSS]

Not only that, all these patents (both US and Japanese) they are using against Palworld were filed for AFTER Palworld was released.

Re:

[Rinnon]

I doubt that there isn't a parallel copyright infringement cases going on.

Re:

[Moryath]

Nintendo knew they didn't have a copyright case. [youtube.com] That's why they filed for patents after-the-fact and are acting like giant, petty xenophobic bullies against "the gaijin," making the Palworld developers spend money defending a baseless patent lawsuit.

Re:

[Gideon Fubar]

Uh.

Pocketpair are a Japanese company.

Time for a boot up the ass

[Malay2bowman]

The petty kind of parenting such as "the smooth transition between riding things" needs to be immediately thrown out followed by a warning that if they attempt this shit again, all of their previous patents are declared null and void. It's time to be nasty and brutal with these fucks.

Re:

[Malay2bowman]

Parenting - PATENTING ..fucking spell cHeKkUr....

Re:

[supremebob]

I played Palworld, and honestly if felt more like a ripoff of World Of Warcraft than it did a ripoff of Pokemon.

Nintendo should be careful, as they might end up getting their bogus patents get thrown out from prior art claims from games as old or even older as their own.

While it is clear what Palworld copied

[khchung]

but so did every Souls-like game, every Rogue-like game, nearly every fantasy RPG game, etc, etc.

At most, you can call Palworld a "Pokemon-like" game, but trying to sue them for patent violation is purely barratry, a textbook example of an entrenched company trying to bankrupt a newcomer with baseless lawsuits.

This hurts innovation in gaming and ultimately hurt all gamers.

Nintendo deserved to lose this lawsuit, and deserve boycott from games for this.

Re:

[sabbede]

Did Nintendo also sue over the Digimon games?