Nintendo seems to have added a new weapon to its arsenal for use in its legal battle against Palworld, and its name is U.S. patent no. 12,220,638.
Thank you in advance to Gamerant's Dominik Bošnjak for the original article (per Games Fray).
A new patent registered by Nintendo with the United States Patent and Trademark Office appears to describe a “creature capture” mechanic, which is also similar to a different patent (no. 12,179,111) that Nintendo also registered at the end of 2024.
It seems the new patent is actually somewhat of retcon of the previous one, as Bošnjak notes that Games Fray’s report states that the more open-ended language (such as swapping the phrase “field character with “virtual character”) can be applied to Palworld’s mechanics in a broader sense.
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This news comes after a report from today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has only granted one out of the 23 claims that Nintendo had previously filed against Palworld last year.
The one patent they did grant refers to the “smooth switching of riding objects in a game”, which appears to be in direct reference to the mechanic that allows you to switch between Pokémon that you can ride in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
That report came after another report from December, in which the United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected 32 out of the 33 claims made against Palworld.
All in all, not a great batting average on Nintendo’s behalf, but that might actually be to plan.
Given that 54 out of their 56 claims against Palworld have been rejected thus far, it seems that Nintendo’s lawyers are essentially just throwing everything they can at them in an attempt to see what sticks.
Here’s hoping the publishers behind Palworld are in this one for the long haul, because it seems like Nintendo won’t be calming down any time soon.