Amazing lol! Though it is worthing that Nintendo is alleging patent infringement...

Aeolun · 2024-09-19T08:30:09 1726734609

How the hell can you patent that. And it isn't even specific. That's just absurd...

Also, it was filed on May 2, 2024. Seems to me like there's millions of instances of prior art in that case.

71bw · 2024-09-19T10:43:53 1726742633

>Also, it was filed on May 2, 2024.

>Palworld Release Date: Jan 18, 2024[1]

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1623730/Palworld/

tourmalinetaco · 2024-09-20T16:33:28 1726850008

And Palworld was announced at least two years prior, where this exact mechanic was shown.

jeffwask · 2024-09-19T14:35:11 1726756511

WB patent the Nemesis system which boiled down is "a system where bosses evolve and get strong based on player interaction'. A patent they have pretty much not used and prevented other games from developing similar interactions.

Patents in gaming are weird and suck hard. They stifle innovation and growth. Games have evolved and grown on the backs of previous games forever.

flockonus · 2024-09-19T17:24:16 1726766656

Ironically "Gary" (the rival) in pokemon series is exactly that in many of the old games, he keeps getting stronger and challenging you like a boss!

silexia · 2024-09-24T03:59:14 1727150354

Patents everywhere are weird and suck hard. They stifle innovation and growth. Human knowledge has evolved and grown on the back of other human knowledge forever.

nazka · 2024-09-20T11:42:23 1726832543

That’s so bad. You should be able to patent specific rules to protect your game or like board game and avoid people from copy pasting it. But you shouldn’t be able to patent such broad mechanics…

kabdib · 2024-09-19T08:53:57 1726736037

Anyone reading Nintendo patents should get used to "but, there's prior art!"

londons_explore · 2024-09-19T10:41:43 1726742503

I think they've realised that proving prior art is so expensive that most smaller companies won't be able to afford the lawyers fees to do so.

That means that as long as you can sneak prior art past the patent examiner (fairly easy), you still get an effective business weapon.

slightwinder · 2024-09-19T12:08:44 1726747724

It's referencing older patents, being a continuation of a US-patent from 2022, and Japanese patent from 2021.

Aeolun · 2024-09-19T23:59:38 1726790378

That doesn't actually help, because Pokemon and its clones are two decades old by this point.

slightwinder · 2024-09-20T11:37:38 1726832258

It's a hint that this patent is probably not a direct reaction to Palworld. And it means that we are lacking a significant amount of information regarding the whole history of these patents. Quite possible that they indeed have a trail of patents going back for decades, and this is just the latest addition.

Sakos · 2024-09-19T11:27:22 1726745242

Man, I'm really tired of patents and copyright. I'm not sure what's supposed to come out of this. Nobody is allowed to make a Pokemon-like game anymore? Who does that benefit other than Nintendo/TPC?

torginus · 2024-09-19T16:14:09 1726762449

is there a clause in US patent law where if you choose to either selectively enforce your patents, or not enforcing them for a while then suddenly starting to do so, invalidates your patent?

kelnos · 2024-09-20T04:39:57 1726807197

No, but US trademark law has something like that.

juancn · 2024-09-19T15:07:14 1726758434

That's the Mario's hat patent

Fire-Dragon-DoL · 2024-09-19T18:38:50 1726771130

Wow, did they really patent rock throwing. How the F is that allowed.