Nintendo has secured a U.S. patent for a creature-capturing system bearing striking resemblance to the one at the heart of its ongoing legal battle with Palworld developer, Pocketpair. This move raises concerns that Nintendo may be preparing to expand the lawsuit beyond Japan.

The lawsuit, initially filed jointly by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company in September 2024 in the Tokyo District Court, alleges that Palworld infringes upon their intellectual property.  The newly granted U.S. patent, numbered 12,220,638 and published on February 11th, describes a system for capturing creatures, conceptually similar to a previously secured U.S. patent (no. 12,179,111) from late 2024.  Both patents belong to the same family of patents central to the Japanese lawsuit.

A key distinction between the two patents lies in the terminology used to describe the creature-capture mechanics.  The December 2024 patent differentiates between a “first” and “second” mode of operation, involving separate screens for aiming and capturing or battling.  The new patent uses broader language, substituting terms like “virtual character” for “field character,” potentially widening the scope of its protection.

Patent analyst Florian Mueller suggests this change may be a response to potential arguments from Pocketpair that Palworld's mechanics don't fit the dual-mode description of the earlier patent. By securing a more broadly defined patent, Nintendo appears to be preemptively addressing such arguments.

Mueller previously described Nintendo’s lawsuit against Pocketpair as a case of bullying. The pursuit of these patents in the U.S., while the initial lawsuit remains confined to Japan, suggests a possible escalation of the legal conflict to a global scale. The outcome of Nintendo's other pending U.S. patent applications will likely determine the future course of action.

Not all of Nintendo's U.S. patent applications related to this case have been successful. In early December 2024, the USPTO rejected one application (No. 18/652,883) on most of its claims.  The single allowed claim described a system for switching mountable virtual creatures while riding them. Nintendo is actively pursuing this claim and seeking to have more of its claims granted.