An argument in favor of Pocketpair
Nintendo here wanted to validate the capture system that we can see in the games Pokémon Let’s Gowhich consists of throwing an object at a character to capture it. The GamesFray website reports that the Japan Patent Office (JPO), which is responsible for validating or not such patents, examined the file and decided not to go in Nintendo’s direction.
It is specified that this lack of validation comes from consulting other previous games with similar mechanicsas ARK, Monster Hunter 4, Craftopia, Kantai Collection and even Pokémon GOwhich is still quite amusing. The Japan Patent Office specifies that the technique presented by Nintendo does not contain enough innovative elements to validate the patent.
Nintendo could therefore try to convince the JPO by providing other documents and evidence to validate its position, which could take a lot of time as it may require appealing to the Intellectual Property High Court (IPHC), which also deals with this type of case in the legal field. This does not protect Pocketpair from any lawsuit, but the Japanese studio could use this small victory here to have the judges lean in its favor, even if this will depend on Nintendo’s next reaction.