this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
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155
Nintendo Patent Approved in August Could Be What It Uses Against Palworld (gamerant.com)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 178 points 3 months ago (5 children)

This patent was first submitted in late July 2024 and granted the following month, after Nintendo and The Pokemon Company asked for an accelerated review process.

What the fuck - so, they're claiming infringement on a work that was released before they ever submitted their patent? How is that allowed? Are you telling me a company can wait until another company releases a similar product, then apply for a patent for something they used, then claim infringement? I knew patents were fucked, but I didn't realize they were that fucked.

[–] [email protected] 117 points 3 months ago

How is that allowed?

Well it's not, you aren't supposed to be able to get a patent for something that already exists. But you know, corruption

[–] [email protected] 66 points 3 months ago (2 children)

It’s not. In fact you know how this kind of patent gets invalidated, by pointing out what’s know as prior art. Things that did “this” before that patent was filed. So Palworlds and any other game that involves capturing a creature. This “killer patent” won’t stand up in Court unless the Japanese Court is entirely different than the US and German Courts.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago

JP courts are corpo jokes and their IP laws are even big clown shoe than US.

I take extra pleasure pirating JP product, fuck the corporate trash

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

The request for an expedited review of patent number 7545191 also facilitated the approval of three other patents from Nintendo and The Pokemon Company (7528390, 7493117 and 7505854). Kurihara noted that amending an existing patent for specific litigation purposes is an established industry practice, and possibly what happened in this particular case.

This does not make sense to me.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago

Not in tbe US it's not.

An existing implementation would be prior art and make it EXTREMELY easy to get the patent invalidated.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago

yea that sounds nasty

just don't patent anything, other companies build a product around an unpatented idea, then you patent it and sue them? now their entire product is ruined??

this makes no sense, that would mean the optimal play is to not patent anything until someone else starts doing it

[–] [email protected] 81 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Nintendo's stagnated and has become a patent troll

as someone that used to be a fan I'm sad as it's hard to be hyped for any of their games when they're widely known for pulling these kinds of scummy tactics time and time again

indies be dammed, it's too much of a risk to make Nintendo-inspired games let alone direct fan-games

[–] [email protected] 43 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nintendo has always been an underhanded bully. This isn't new.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ya their patent crap precedes year 2000

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

And is just an extension to their licensing nonsense and publishing deals thst came beforex

Anyone surprised by any of this doesn't care about Nintendo's behaviour, just the impact the current move is having on their current fun.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago

It’s a shame you can’t support nintendo’s developers while excluding their legal department. Oh well, the high seas mean I still get to enjoy what I want to

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

People can't even make a mod that requires the base game to work.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Rooting for Palworld devs, I can think of several examples of prior art.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

Patents don't protect art

Edit: ok, apparently "prior art" might be a phase in US patent law. I don't quite understand what it means. In my country patents protect functions, not expressions of ideas (art)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

My understanding of a patent (in the US) is that it's only for new, novel concepts, often difficult to design or conceive.

Prior art, in this context, are just examples of this concept already in use or demonstrated. If there are already examples of the idea in use by others, then your idea isn't new (and therefore not patentable).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

That's not what "art" means in this context.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Worth reading the article, but for the TL:drs and comment readers:

  • A patent attorney has narrowed down the list of potential candidates that could be central to Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair to 28 patents.
  • Out of those, one particular intellectual property describing creature-capture mechanics was labeled as a "killer patent" that would be difficult not to infringe when making a game with monster-taming elements.
  • The said property is part of a recently approved patent family consisting of three more patents, all of which were approved mere weeks before Nintendo and The Pokemon Company sued Pocketpair.
[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If this is really Nintendo's strategy, they're going to be hosed, even in Japanese courts. Pokemon isn't even the first game with these mechanics, Dragon Quest (a Square Enix property) and Shin Megami Tensei (an Atlas property) had the mechanic and came out before Pokemon, plus the original Pokemon released over 20 yeares ago.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Don't we tame and capture Yoshi? Heh

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

By throwing an item at it? Patents are very specific

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

aiming a capture item at a character and releasing it using two inputs, an analog stick and a button press

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Where do you catch a Yoshi using an item?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I was just telling you what the patent was

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I know the patent, that was why I asked this way up there

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Patents are very specific

You'd be surprised at some of the gargage that sneaks past the patents office

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Well, I can’t be surprised about a fact I already know, I guess

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

If they only were awarded the patents recently, could they even still be used to site patent infringement on a game that was made and released well before Nintendo/Pokemon Co. got the patent(s)? I could have sworn these were NOT retroactive...

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

The riding mounts system seems like the funnier patent

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Does JP patent law not allow for prior art?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

JP patent law is fucked.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (2 children)

JP law is fucked. I heard you could get sued for leaving a bad review at a restaurant

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Japan is also one of the few countries where you aren't assumed to be innocent until proven guilty. If you get arrested for a crime you have tl prove your innocence, which is why Japan has a conviction rate of over 99%

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

that's pretty fucked if true

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Libel includes factual statements there

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I just filed a patent for white rice so now all you rice eaters owe me $20

I don't care if that isn't how IP law works, should a thought about that before eating all that rice ya dingus

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Patent the Japanese government and then proceed to overthrow it in a lawsuit.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

I'm gonna patent the doohickey and sue the guy who shot Shinzo Abe

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

So first we can't even get (unpaid) mods in other games that add/include Nintendo things in them, now Nintendo is just flexing their stupid balls at everything they can?

Fuck this goddamn world, dude. This timeline fucking sucks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Nintendo not getting another cent out of me.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Keep watching. Everything unfortunately was chosen this way. The ruling class is experiencing their first real doses of reality. It won't be over night changes, but it only gets worse for the ruling class from here. Sic semper tyrannis.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

Nintendo...not even pirated.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Just stop buying Nintendo. I sure did, last 2 things I bought was used 6ish mo ago, and now I'm out for good. Never looking back. Nintendo's boat is sunk. It's going to be monumentus when Nintendo is crushed. They earned what happens next.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Look, I hate the Nintendo tax and legal bullying too.

But having the second best selling system, up there with the PS2, I doubt they're sunk anytime soon.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

And owning multiple of the largest game franchises including Pokemon which is larger than any other media franchise.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

While I don't know Japanese law, and folks are right in US law about prior art, I think everyone is missing the point.

Companies like Nintendo don't have to actually win. They probably created this patent as a throw away to force Pocketpair to waste money fighting it. It costs tons of money to hire an attorney, work through the process, etc. It takes YEARS.

Nintendo probably wants to waste Pocketpair's time and money OR they're trying to get them to just settle and give Nintendo a cut of the profits.

That's how big tech works with tons of patents and how patent trolls keep leeching off society. I have a patent for a button, you have a phone you're making. I say give me 1% of your profit. What's 1% to you? You agree, we don't go to court and the next person that does it I do the same thing, but now I show them how many people agreed and that person is scared and think I have a legit case.

This shit is constantly happening in the background nonstop.

Patent law, copyright law, they are fundamentally broken. But they won't get fixed until something BIG happens.

Nintendo is and always has been a bully. This is just another instance of it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Ugh, the suspense... When will we even get to know what the accusations are about? Is this Japan or Kafka's Trial?