A new report has revealed that Nintendo has acquired a third anti-Palworld patent, and a fourth one is almost about to be granted.
According to a report by GamesFray, Nintendo now has three anti-Palworld patents—the first two mentioned in an earlier report. The latest one, 12,246,255, was granted on March 11, 2025. It concerns smooth switching between flying and land traversal objects. Also, Nintendo’s request to interview the patent examiner was approved, and it seems a fourth patent will be granted soon.
What do Nintendo’s Anti-Palworld Patents Mean for Pocketpair
Nintendo will soon have four anti-Palworld patents in the United States, which could mean a lawsuit could be filed against Pocketpair soon. The latest approved patent was initially filled in September 2022, but Nintendo has made amendments to it over the years, even after Palworld’s launch.
Nintendo’s interview with the USPTO examiner was successful. Out of the 23 patent claims, Nintendo has been able to add additional requirements to independent and dependent claims. It has dropped two claims and made limited changes to a claim. Moreover, Nintendo and the Pokemon Company have added a 24th claim, which talks about interacting with a character that a player either battles with or captures.
GamesFray believes it is “fairly likely” that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company will file a patent infringement complaint in the US. However, it is not certain, and depending on how things go in Japan, there’s always a chance that the lawsuit will never come.
In other news, Pocketpair’s CEO came ‘under attack in Japan every day’ when Palworld was released. Also, the game could be released on the Switch 2 if the console is ‘beefy enough’. What are your thoughts on Nintendo acquiring more anti-Palworld patents? Let us know in the comments or on our community forum!
For more information from Insider Gaming, read about Nintendo delaying Switch 2 pre-orders in the US. Don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
At this point why does anyone support them anymore? Nintendo is scummy and shady as hell and deserve the axe..
Some of those patents will have a far reaching affect outside of Palworld. I’m pretty sure Blizzard (World of Warcraft) has had the mount functions Nintendo is claiming way before them (by about 2 decades).
Nintendo is addicted to bad press at this point
Literally what I thought. These patents are so vague that literally any game where you ride a creature that flies would count.
‘What do Nintendo’s anti-Palworld patents mean for Pocketpair’
I can tell you what it means for Nintendo. It means they’ll be getting a little less money because I’ll be playing most of their games on PC.
I think it will be much harder to file suit in the us because in the US from my understanding prior art is enough to invalidate a patent. So all poketpair will have to so is show that a game did this before the patent was filed.
Us patents are weak to this prior art argument one example is the water bed was patented i think i the 70s, another company started making a similar water filled bed and was sued claiming patent violation, well they found prior art, in a scifi book from the 50s someone had described pretty exactly a water bed, that was enough to prove the current patent holder wasn’t the first to come up with the idea and the case was thrown out and the patent invalidated.
I officially swear off all nintendo products going forward.
IDK why people are so shitty minded that they keep on buying this Nintendo’s shit even after the craps they have pulled and are still pulling. Just stop buying, or people don’t have any control on themselves anymore? Don’t but upcoming Nintendo and the games and just stop all this mess.
Switch 2 is already going to be delayed in the US after the tariffs. Why can’t we just cancel Nintendo for once they need to be humbled for a change.
Nintendo keeps trying to patent vague ideas that have nothing to do with our unique to palworld or Pokemon. “The smooth transition of flying to land with an object”? Like flying in gta San Andreas or gta5? Like Skyrim riding the dragons? Like ark survival evolved with a huge variety of flying Dinos? Like smalland riding bees? No Nintendo. You don’t own the idea of flight in a video game.
Before this they filed for “2 modes in a game. Map mode where you can explore the world. And transition into combat mode”. I’m other words they think This is unique to Pokemon despite final fantasy and legend of Dragoon did it long before. Nintendo disgusts me
This is utter ridiculousness. Patenting a switch between flying and land objects? That’s too petty. And they are trying to patent interacting with a character after a battle? What are they going to patent bosses next? This needs to stop before they patent walking!
How tf can they patent “smooth switching from flying to land traversal objects” against PalWorld when
1. It’s not smooth. Nothing about new Pokémon games is smooth lmao even in PLA the flying was choppy and had frame drops, and Scarlet/Violet only made the frame drops worse
2. Nintendo/Pokémon Company are NOT the first, and certainly won’t be the last to offer transitions between flying and land objects
Scre Nintendo these parents can kill gaming. Means indies can’t use them means nobody can without paying Nintendo. I hope the switch 2 fails and I hope people stop giving them money.
Can someone sue nintendo properly already and shut them up? They clearly need to collapse bigtime at this point.
You can’t claim rights to ride animals/monsters in a game let alone being able to switch between pals in your loadout just because they can fly and swim if Pokemon really wants money that bad to fund the games they are probably going to make worse than palworld go to mobile games there’s tons of Pokemon rip offs hell I play 4 pokemon gacha games on my phone already Pokemon is just going to sue palworld into the ground and try to recreate the game for themselves they are going from a family company to a shitty company
Ahh yes, flying to ground transition AND interacting with enemies who you may battle or capture. Vague and too broad. The first could extend to flight simulators, the latter could extend to any game where you talk to a boss before the fight.
If there is anything I know about patents in games is that you cant patent concepts. You can patent intellectual property such as the actual characters (Pikachu, Ash, etc), but unless they are copying the code, there isn’t much to go on. That said there are bad takes on this such as the nemesis system that got a patent and then the company did nothing with it. Still, patents like these do nothing but hinder creativity and are meant to actively suppress competition, not protect IP.
This is why I’m done supporting Nintendo first of all on the Nintendo switch 2 the prices of their video games getting ridiculous and now this I personally don’t care about pocket pairs video game but that’s not the point they shouldn’t be suing or patented anything Nintendo is so scummy
$80 $90 for their video game almost $100 is outrageous if we don’t put our foot down sooner or later we’re going to be paying $200 for standard video game I’m not paying those outrageous prices
Nintendo is 100% scummy and greedy it’s ridiculous
At this point, I’m boycotting Nintendo, selling all my Nintendo shit, and never buying from them again.
They were a company built for family entertainment, hell, they use to sell cards way before the NES, now they are gonna sue a company for innovation?
Well Fuck You Nintendo!
You should have made your game better before crapping on the guys that did
At this point, maybe Atari can sue Nintendo, because they were the first home console. T
Though I might be wrong, could be the Commodore
Maybe Bandai/Digimon should sue Nintendo/Pokemon for the use of mega evolutions because Digimon did it first and Pokemon obviously copied them.
Sadly doesn’t matter who made the concept first. Nintendo is the first to patent the game play mechanics, and therefore nothing made before there game is validated.
I will not be touching a Nintendo product again. They are pure greedy scumbags. Are the little babies crying because a compitor game came out that was more fun than the dog crap Pokémon games the pushed out in recent years. I mean look at Scarlet and violet it looks like a bloody PS2 game with then low effort Textures. And honestly my comparison feels like an insult to the PS2.
And this is why I’m buying what I can on Steam since I have an Ally. If I could somehow get LoZ and Pokémon some other means, I would have no use for a Switch 2.
While they are at it why not try and parent ‘characters moving around the environment in response to joypad input’. Nintendont have been totally schooled by pocketpair and are just lashing out.
First nintendo is scummy and the way they been acting to palworld is crazy then their price hikes and things to get people to buy new switch is crazy. To top it off they are doing more against palworld i legit am done with Nintendo