The Japan Patent Office rejected Nintendo's new patent claim, now they have no chance but to wait. However there also other forces at work here.
Nintendo filed application for a new patent this year and specifically requested a fast-tracked review through the JPO. You don't fast-track a patent unless you need it operational before something specific happens in the market, and what's happening this year is Palworld Mobile. Nintendo needs it fast basically. The fast-track request, combined with the February 2026 amendment Nintendo already filed when the original claims hit resistance, reads like a company racing the launch calendar of a competitor it can't currently sue on mobile-specific grounds.
Nintendo already has versus what it's trying to build. The September 2024 lawsuit Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed against Pocketpair in Tokyo District Court covers monster-catching mechanics on PC and console, and the new patent is from the same patent family. What it adds is the touchscreen-specific language, which is the exact element Nintendo's existing portfolio doesn't cleanly cover apparently.
Krafton's PUBG Studios is developing Palworld Mobile under a licensing agreement signed in October 2024, weeks after the lawsuit landed, and the mobile version sits outside the scope of what Nintendo's current patent assertions can reach. That's the gap the fast-track filing was trying to close before launch.
The Tencent Problem Sits Underneath
Chinese Roco Kingdom: World makes this more complicated. Tencent's mobile monster-catcher hit 15 million day-one players in China in March 2026 and hasn't expanded internationally yet, but the international rollout is a question of when, not if. Nintendo's only realistic enforcement lever against a Tencent product is a Japan-jurisdiction patent, because litigating against Tencent inside China runs into a domestic IP environment that doesn't favour foreign companies.
The new patent request with the JPO specifically, and requesting expedited review, was Nintendo positioning a shield to protect its market. The rejection puts that whole strategy back at the start of the queue.
What the Examiner Actually Found
The examiners stated that Nintendo's claimed combination of touchscreen controls, capture items deployed against field characters, and success-or-failure determination was an obvious combination of established ideas rather than an inventive step, with prior art including Pokémon Generations, PUBG Mobile, and other public material predating the filing.
Nintendo can apply again and probably will cause they are panicking, given the company's track record of pursuing patent prosecutions long past the point where another rights-holder would have abandoned the application. The cost of those continued attempts isn't just legal fees, though, it's the months of runway disappearing while Palworld Mobile moves toward its 2026 launch window without a touchscreen-specific patent available against it.
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