Nintendo Tries To Obtain Touchscreen-Specific Patent On Monster Capturing (gamesfray.com)
(Monday May 18, 2026 @05:00PM (BeauHD)
from the to-be-continued dept.)
- Reference: 0183271239
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/05/18/196230/nintendo-tries-to-obtain-touchscreen-specific-patent-on-monster-capturing
- Source link: https://gamesfray.com/taking-aim-at-palworld-mobile-nintendo-trying-to-obtain-touchscreen-specific-patent-on-monster-capturing-and-thus-far-failing/
Nintendo is [1]trying to secure a touchscreen-specific monster-catching patent that could be relevant to Palworld Mobile. Japan's patent office has initially rejected the application for lacking an inventive step over prior art, but the company could appeal or amend the claims. Games Fray reports:
> The Japan Patent Office (JPO) has now made a new monster-catching patent application by Nintendo public. Patent Application No. 2026-019762 covers monster-catching of the kind already asserted against the PC and console versions of Palworld and is from the same patent family as two of the three patents Nintendo is already asserting against Palworld, but with a touchscreen focus. Potential targets are the upcoming Palworld Mobile game and Tencent's Roco Kingdom: World, which is presently available only in China but likely to expand internationally. Nintendo filed the application this year with a request for a fast-tracked review. The JPO has indeed been quick, and the response is that Nintendo's application lacks an inventive step over the prior art.
>
> Nintendo already amended the claims in February and can try to amend them again. It can try to persuade the examiner and potentially appeal the decision. But the initial rejection suggests that Nintendo will not obtain the desired touchscreen monster-catching patent quickly. The rejection was communicated on April 24, 2026. Nintendo could abandon the application now, but Nintendo being Nintendo, they are more likely to try to persuade the examiner to arrive at a different conclusion, even though the reasons for the rejection are strong. In many patent examination processes, the initial rejection is essentially just an invitation to present one's best arguments. Here, however, the rejection notice is so well-reasoned that it will be an uphill battle for Nintendo.
Nintendo's application would cover a touchscreen-controlled game in which a player moves through "a field in a virtual space," uses "a capture item for capturing a field character," and can summon "a battle character" to fight that creature. During combat, the game would display "a plurality of commands including at least an attack command and an item command," selected through "an operation input using the touch panel."
The key claim is that when the capture item is used "during a battle" or "in a non-battle state," the game performs "a capture success determination," and, if successful, "the field character is captured and set to a state owned by the player."
[1] https://gamesfray.com/taking-aim-at-palworld-mobile-nintendo-trying-to-obtain-touchscreen-specific-patent-on-monster-capturing-and-thus-far-failing/
> The Japan Patent Office (JPO) has now made a new monster-catching patent application by Nintendo public. Patent Application No. 2026-019762 covers monster-catching of the kind already asserted against the PC and console versions of Palworld and is from the same patent family as two of the three patents Nintendo is already asserting against Palworld, but with a touchscreen focus. Potential targets are the upcoming Palworld Mobile game and Tencent's Roco Kingdom: World, which is presently available only in China but likely to expand internationally. Nintendo filed the application this year with a request for a fast-tracked review. The JPO has indeed been quick, and the response is that Nintendo's application lacks an inventive step over the prior art.
>
> Nintendo already amended the claims in February and can try to amend them again. It can try to persuade the examiner and potentially appeal the decision. But the initial rejection suggests that Nintendo will not obtain the desired touchscreen monster-catching patent quickly. The rejection was communicated on April 24, 2026. Nintendo could abandon the application now, but Nintendo being Nintendo, they are more likely to try to persuade the examiner to arrive at a different conclusion, even though the reasons for the rejection are strong. In many patent examination processes, the initial rejection is essentially just an invitation to present one's best arguments. Here, however, the rejection notice is so well-reasoned that it will be an uphill battle for Nintendo.
Nintendo's application would cover a touchscreen-controlled game in which a player moves through "a field in a virtual space," uses "a capture item for capturing a field character," and can summon "a battle character" to fight that creature. During combat, the game would display "a plurality of commands including at least an attack command and an item command," selected through "an operation input using the touch panel."
The key claim is that when the capture item is used "during a battle" or "in a non-battle state," the game performs "a capture success determination," and, if successful, "the field character is captured and set to a state owned by the player."
[1] https://gamesfray.com/taking-aim-at-palworld-mobile-nintendo-trying-to-obtain-touchscreen-specific-patent-on-monster-capturing-and-thus-far-failing/
Patent abuse (Score:1)
by memory_register ( 6248354 )
This makes as much sense as having a patent on driving games or shooting games. It is lazy lawfare.
Software patents a net drain to econ (Score:2)
by Tablizer ( 95088 )
> It is lazy lawfare.
Patents on software are a net drain of resources on our economy. Most software "inventions" are not in giant Edison-like labs, but situational happenstance. As an incentive system, it sucks. And the patent office can't tell the rare gems from trash patents such that the net result is waste on trash patents.
Nukem!
Stupid patents (Score:2)
by gurps_npc ( 621217 )
Can I patent insulting someone on the internet?
Because I think it could become really BIG.
Re: (Score:1)
by Tablizer ( 95088 )
My father did prior art of that in the college ARPANET lab in the late 70's.
Trying to patent the mouth (Score:1)
by Tablizer ( 95088 )
Placoderms invented the mouth 440 million years ago. That's very prior art.
Just a reminder they didn't invent Pokemon (Score:2, Interesting)
The basic idea, which their own people have admitted, came from a old Japanese live action TV series called ultra 7 which is in the Ultraman series.
So it's patently ridiculous, pun intended, for them to be trying to get patents on something they didn't come up with on their own. Never mind the obvious ridiculousness of everything about this.