The director of the USA Patent and Trademark Office has ordered a reexamination of Nintendo’s controversial ‘summon character and let it battle’ Pokémon patent after it was closely criticized by IP attorneys.
In September, IP attorneys criticized the U.S. patent system and the USPTO after Nintendo was awarded a Pokémon patent that revolves round summoning a personality and letting it battle.
Games Fray reported that Patent No. 12,403,397, dubbed the ‘397 patent, was granted by the USPTO “with none objection” to Nintendo, which is embroiled in ongoing litigation with Pocketpair’s Palworld.
Whereas the patent sums up how Pokémon video games work in that you simply summon Pokémon to battle different Pokémon within the hope of including them to your assortment, there are numerous different video games that use related mechanics, reminiscent of Persona, Digimon, and even Elden Ring, relying upon how the patent is interpreted.
On the time, IP knowledgeable Florian Mueller took to social media to say Nintendo “ought to by no means” have obtained a “summon character and let it battle” patent within the first place, whereas online game patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon instructed PC Gamer “these claims have been under no circumstances allowable.”
Now, Games Fray has reported that Donald Trump nominee John A. Squires, who solely turned director of the USPTO in September, has personally ordered a reexamination after he “decided that substantial new questions of patentability have arisen” to sure claims made by the patent.
This is Squires’ description of the claims in query:
“The ‘397 patent issued with claims drawn to controlling the motion of a participant character in a discipline of a digital house, inflicting a sub character to seem within the discipline, controlling a battle in a handbook mode when an enemy character is current within the location the sub character has appeared, and when an enemy character just isn’t current within the location the sub character has appeared, robotically transferring the sub character, and controlling a battle in an automated mode when an enemy character is positioned at a chosen location.”
In his order, Squires pointed to 2 older U.S. patent purposes — one filed by Konami in 2002, the opposite by Nintendo itself in 2019 — as “prior artwork” references. Each, Squires mentioned, can be “vital in deciding whether or not the claims are patentable,” and every “raises a considerable new query of patentability.”
Mueller, writing for Video games Fray, mentioned Squires’ order was all the way down to the “public outrage” on the award of the patent, and issues in regards to the popularity of the U.S. patent system as an entire. Whereas this reexamination isn’t a revocation order, Mueller insisted it’s now “extremely probably” that the USPTO will revoke Nintendo’s ‘397 patent. Nintendo has two months to reply.
What does this imply for Nintendo and The Pokémon Firm’s high-profile authorized battle with Pocketpair over Palworld? Mueller mentioned it “additional undermines the credibility” of Nintendo’s patent assertions in opposition to Pocketpair’s sport.
That is the most recent authorized blow for Nintendo in its battle in opposition to Palworld. Final month, one of the Nintendo patents associated to its monster seize patents filed final 12 months was rejected by the Japan Patent Office (JPO) for missing originality. The workplace’s reasoning for the rejection made reference to older video games with related mechanics that have been launched even earlier than 2021, together with ARK (launched in 2015), Monster Hunter 4 (2013), and Japanese browser sport Kantai Assortment (additionally 2013). Satirically, Pocketpair’s Craftopia (2020) and Niantic’s Pokémon Go (2016) have been amongst different examples of video games that have been used to argue that the patent lacks originality.
The case entails three main patents granted by the JPO: two associated to monster seize and launch, and one associated to driving characters. All three patents have been filed in 2024, after Palworld got here out. Nonetheless, they’re truly derived from earlier Nintendo patents courting from 2021. In different phrases, evidently as soon as Palworld got here on the scene, Nintendo filed divisional patents that have been geared to battle particularly in opposition to Palworld’s alleged infringement of the unique patents.
Since then, Pocketpair has made changes to Palworld’s disputed mechanics. The November 2024 patch eliminated the power to summon Friends by throwing Pokéball-like Pal Spheres (now Friends simply materialize subsequent to you when summoned). In Might this 12 months, one other Palworld replace modified how one can glide within the sport — as an alternative of straight grabbing onto Glider Friends, now you simply merely use Pal-buffed Glider gear. The case has rumbled on, with Nintendo even rewriting a mount-related patent mid-lawsuit, and arguing that mods shouldn’t depend as prior artwork.
So what occurs subsequent? Mueller mentioned there is probably not any additional developments this calendar 12 months referring to Nintendo’s lawsuit in opposition to Pocketpair or patents which can be associated to it. However selections are anticipated subsequent 12 months. All eyes shall be on Presiding Choose Motoyuki Nakashima, who leads the patent division of the Tokyo District Courtroom. “It is ever extra probably that Nintendo will lose,” Mueller mentioned.
On the Recreation Builders Convention (GDC) in March, IGN sat down for an prolonged dialog with John “Bucky” Buckley, communications director and publishing supervisor for Palworld developer Pocketpair. We spoke following his discuss on the convention, ‘Group Administration Summit: A Palworld Curler Coaster: Surviving the Drop.’ Throughout that discuss, Buckley went into candid element a couple of quantity of Palworld’s struggles, particularly the accusations of it utilizing generative AI (which Pocketpair has since debunked fairly soundly) and stealing Pokemon’s fashions for its personal Friends (a declare that the one who initially made it has since retracted). He even commented a bit on Nintendo’s patent infringement lawsuit in opposition to the studio, saying it “got here as a shock” to the studio and was “one thing that nobody even thought-about.”
Final month, former Capcom sport developer Yoshiki Okamoto issued feedback seemingly in opposition to Pocketpair and Palworld within the authorized battle, sparking a backlash from viewers. In a YouTube video posted on his channel on September 27, Okamoto mentioned Palworld had “crossed a line that shouldn’t be crossed, and I do not need the world to change into a spot the place this sort of factor is suitable.”
Photograph by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Photographs.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.