Last year, Nintendo filed a patent that partly describes the act of capturing a character in game, similar to what you do in Pokémon games. GamesFray has reported that the application as been rejected by the Japan Patent Office (JPO) after it looked at ‘prior art’ – examples of the invention being used before the application was made – which had been submitted by a third party.
The patent description describes the capturig mechanic “causes the computer to, when the capture item… hits the field character, make a capture success determination as to whether the capture is successful.”
If it was deemed successful, the computer will then “set the field character hit by the capture item to be owned by the player.”
There were also numerous other situations that were described, including a similar mechanic to hit characters with items which can “restrict the movement of the field character on the field.”
JPO said “the inventions claimed in… this application were invented in Japan or elsewhere before the filing of the application.” Examples included in the Notice of Refusal include games like Ark, Craftopia, Monster Hunter 4, and Pokémon Go.
GamesFray also notes that it’s “plausible” that PocketPair may have been the third party that provided the prior art to the JPO.
Both PocketPair and Nintendo are still locked into their ongoing legal battle, where Nintendo alleged that PocketPair’s game Palworld infringes on three patents that are related to monster-catching gameplay, including summoning Pals by throwing Pal Spheres, and using Pals as vehicles like gliders.
Last month, Nintendo successfully acquired U.S. patent on a summoning mechanic, which drew the ire of IP lawyers.
In other Nintendo-related lawsuits, Nintendo has won a lawsuit against streamer Jesse Keighin who kept streaming pirated Switch games. A Colorado federal court ordered Keighin to pay $17,500 in damages.