A “Pokémon” fan game video that was almost forgotten 13 years ago suddenly became popular on the Internet recently, and the reason is quite dramatic. The Japan Patent Office (JPO) recently rejected Nintendo’s patent application for a monster capture system related to the “Palworld” lawsuit. One of the “prior technology” evidence cited by the official was a 2013 display video of a player-made game “Pokémon: Generations”. Players immediately went crazy and ran to the bottom of the video to leave messages: “You saved the entire gaming industry!”
A 13-year-old video turned out to be a stumbling block for Nintendo’s patent application?
According to foreign media reports, the Japan Patent Office believed that some of the monster capture system designs applied by Nintendo lacked sufficient “inventive steps.” Therefore, during the review, the game demonstration video of “Pokémon: Generations” was cited as one of the previous technologies, and it was believed that similar cases with related concepts had already existed.
Although this does not mean that Nintendo’s lawsuit against “Palworld” has failed, because only one application in the relevant patent family was rejected, and the case itself is still ongoing, but this film that has been dusted for many years has unexpectedly become the most watched protagonist of the entire incident.
Players made a crazy pilgrimage, and the message area directly turned into a celebration scene
After the news was revealed, the YouTube video of “Pokémon: Generations” instantly flooded with new comments. Some people wrote, “You saved the entire game industry,” while others laughed and said, “13 years later, you actually relied on this video to influence Nintendo’s patents,” and “I didn’t expect that this fan game would eventually be included in official documents.” Many players believe that this incident symbolizes that creativity should not be easily monopolized by patents, so they are quite excited about the results.
However, foreign media also reminded that many netizens currently interpret this incident as “players defeating Nintendo in games” is actually an exaggeration. What was really rejected was a single patent application, not the final result of the entire “Palworld” lawsuit.