Pokémon Go Maker Prevails at Appeals Court in Patent Dispute

NantWorks LLC failed Thursday to revive its patent dispute against Niantic Inc., the maker of augmented reality games including Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.

The district court was correct to cancel NantWorks’ patents at issue because their asserted claims are directed at abstract ideas, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said.

NantWorks had alleged Niantic infringed two of its patents through its AR games, but the US District Court for the Northern District of California agreed with Niantic that the patents’ asserted claims were ineligible.

Although NantWorks asserted the district court failed to ...