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While I don't know Japanese law, and folks are right in US law about prior art, I think everyone is missing the point.

Companies like Nintendo don't have to actually win. They probably created this patent as a throw away to force Pocketpair to waste money fighting it. It costs tons of money to hire an attorney, work through the process, etc. It takes YEARS.

Nintendo probably wants to waste Pocketpair's time and money OR they're trying to get them to just settle and give Nintendo a cut of the profits.

That's how big tech works with tons of patents and how patent trolls keep leeching off society. I have a patent for a button, you have a phone you're making. I say give me 1% of your profit. What's 1% to you? You agree, we don't go to court and the next person that does it I do the same thing, but now I show them how many people agreed and that person is scared and think I have a legit case.

This shit is constantly happening in the background nonstop.

Patent law, copyright law, they are fundamentally broken. But they won't get fixed until something BIG happens.

Nintendo is and always has been a bully. This is just another instance of it.

Just stop buying Nintendo. I sure did, last 2 things I bought was used 6ish mo ago, and now I'm out for good. Never looking back. Nintendo's boat is sunk. It's going to be monumentus when Nintendo is crushed. They earned what happens next.

So first we can't even get (unpaid) mods in other games that add/include Nintendo things in them, now Nintendo is just flexing their stupid balls at everything they can?

Fuck this goddamn world, dude. This timeline fucking sucks.

I just filed a patent for white rice so now all you rice eaters owe me $20

I don't care if that isn't how IP law works, should a thought about that before eating all that rice ya dingus

Rooting for Palworld devs, I can think of several examples of prior art.

Worth reading the article, but for the TL:drs and comment readers:

• A patent attorney has narrowed down the list of potential candidates that could be central to Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair to 28 patents.
• Out of those, one particular intellectual property describing creature-capture mechanics was labeled as a "killer patent" that would be difficult not to infringe when making a game with monster-taming elements.
• The said property is part of a recently approved patent family consisting of three more patents, all of which were approved mere weeks before Nintendo and The Pokemon Company sued Pocketpair.

Ugh, the suspense... When will we even get to know what the accusations are about? Is this Japan or Kafka's Trial?

Nintendo...not even pirated.

Nintendo's stagnated and has become a patent troll

as someone that used to be a fan I'm sad as it's hard to be hyped for any of their games when they're widely known for pulling these kinds of scummy tactics time and time again

indies be dammed, it's too much of a risk to make Nintendo-inspired games let alone direct fan-games

This patent was first submitted in late July 2024 and granted the following month, after Nintendo and The Pokemon Company asked for an accelerated review process.

What the fuck - so, they're claiming infringement on a work that was released before they ever submitted their patent? How is that allowed? Are you telling me a company can wait until another company releases a similar product, then apply for a patent for something they used, then claim infringement? I knew patents were fucked, but I didn't realize they were that fucked.

Does JP patent law not allow for prior art?