With the ongoing Nintendo and Pokemon versus Palworld lawsuit, another patent has been found recently that's rather problematic for the whole gaming industry.
There's actually two recent patent approvals in the USA, but I'll focus on the main problem here. As spotted by games fray, the patent in question was approved in the USA on September 2nd, which focuses around summoning another character — something that a great many games do. It was originally filed in March 2023, with it only now being approved.
Reading through the patent the important bit it covers in plain English includes all these together:
- A PC, Console or similar device where the game is stored.
- The ability to move your character in a virtual space.
- Summoning a "sub character":
- That sub character can fight enemies either automatically or by your control.
- That sub character being automatically controlled when not fighting enemies (so wandering around with you).
From creature collectors to RPGs and more, there's a lot of games that have this mechanic. Probably in the hundreds if not thousands at this point.
It doesn't mean Nintendo will actually go after a lot of games that use it, this is most notable due to their fight with Palworld in Japan, but it could open up any developer with a summoning mechanic to a legal spat with Nintendo in the USA. This is why such game mechanic patents are problematic, they can (and do) stifle competition.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
About the author - Liam Dawe
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Not a lawyer, so most likely I'm wrong 
, but I think this patent should be immediately invalidated, there are for sure tons of prior art.
, but I think this patent should be immediately invalidated, there are for sure tons of prior art.
14 Likes
fenglengshun 3 days ago
Can we just get to the point and have Nintendo try to patent the concept of video games, money, and having a soul? All these playing around the obvious desire to cosplay as Satan playing video game is taking too long when obviously the end game is to own the rights to your soul.
12 Likes
They are just trying to get some money from successful project. They could have done a pokemon game like that a long time ago, but they didn't. I really hate patents in software worlds because they could be used to sue somebody for using the ideas of others and improving on them.
I hope Nintendo will go to hell for doing things like this.
I hope Nintendo will go to hell for doing things like this.
7 Likes
Every necromancer ever. Every turret. Every mobility summon in open-game worlds. Any form of tower-defence summon.
Wild. Nintendo really are the fucking worst.
Wild. Nintendo really are the fucking worst.
14 Likes
Can we just get to the point and have Nintendo try to patent the concept of video games, money, and having a soul? All these playing around the obvious desire to cosplay as Satan playing video game is taking too long when obviously the end game is to own the rights to your soul.
But do they know how having a soul works?!?
;)
7 Likes
yes Nintendo are hateful for submitting this patent...
...and so is the patents office for approving this shite sham patent
ps: iirc it's been a reality of patent offices for several years that they almost blindly approve requests if formal requirements are met, without thoroughly checking for prior art and other subject-specific aspects
this patent could probably be challenged and dropped before they try to use it against other game devs
but that would be a reversed whack-a-mole where the huge company with the big money and the barely infinite legal team comes up with new shoddy patents and the bigger legal cost is everyone else's to challenge each one of them
this is a rotten legal field until patents scope and originality are subject to more limits to applicability and better scrutiny before acceptance (and patent offices are properly supervised to enforce this), and/or a legal pathway for making it unlawful to forge sham patents (eg: in my country there is a mechanism to sue back if someone tries to sue you in bad faith, trying to weaponize the legal process)
...and so is the patents office for approving this shite sham patent
ps: iirc it's been a reality of patent offices for several years that they almost blindly approve requests if formal requirements are met, without thoroughly checking for prior art and other subject-specific aspects
this patent could probably be challenged and dropped before they try to use it against other game devs
but that would be a reversed whack-a-mole where the huge company with the big money and the barely infinite legal team comes up with new shoddy patents and the bigger legal cost is everyone else's to challenge each one of them
this is a rotten legal field until patents scope and originality are subject to more limits to applicability and better scrutiny before acceptance (and patent offices are properly supervised to enforce this), and/or a legal pathway for making it unlawful to forge sham patents (eg: in my country there is a mechanism to sue back if someone tries to sue you in bad faith, trying to weaponize the legal process)
13 Likes
Sounds pretty much like it will be revoked with a "prior art" statement. And I want to add "Armalyte" as one of the first game I ever saw this.
Last edited by logge on 10 Sep 2025 at 10:38 am UTC
Last edited by logge on 10 Sep 2025 at 10:38 am UTC
4 Likes
Interestingly, the patent makes explicit mention of 'motion of throwing ball toward front/enemy character'. I wonder if that makes any difference as to which situations the patent is applicable to. Another point of note is that the sub-character will battle the enemy character when said enemy gets close to the player character even if the sub-character hasn't appeared on the field. A third note is that the sub-character can automatically engage enemies in a certain radius so if the player sends the sub-character into a group of enemies the sub-character will battle them one after another until either being victorious over all of them or until losing a battle. Considering Palworld launched in 2024 and this patent was filed in 2022, I wonder if it was filed as a reaction to whatever material was available in the Palworld announcement of 2021.
2 Likes
StalePopcorn 2 days ago
Ahhhhhh… the broken patent system
6 Likes
It's definitely in the thousands. I remember playing games in the 80s with such mechanics. A lot of text based Roguelike games had similar summon mechanics. The Golem spell in the original Diablo would be covered too. It's just mind boggling that this patent wasn't rejected outright.
5 Likes
Avehicle7887 2 days ago
The people who approved this are most likely not gamers to begin with. They would know this is very common in many games.
3 Likes
ScottCarammell 2 days ago
least corrupt use of patent law
0 Likes
Caldathras 2 days ago
You would think that they would have a process to file a complaint about such sham patents without having to engage the legal system via a lawsuit -- i.e., the complaint prompts an in-depth investigation of the validity of the patent.
The corporate abuses of the legal system continue ...
Last edited by Caldathras on 10 Sep 2025 at 5:15 pm UTC
The corporate abuses of the legal system continue ...
Last edited by Caldathras on 10 Sep 2025 at 5:15 pm UTC
3 Likes
I'm curious if this isn't similar to when Amazon was attempting to patent/copyright/etc. everything that wasn't nailed down.
While I can't speak to Palworld, it seemed like an asset flip from what little footage I watched, the concept of "sub-character" is obviously so large and already common place there is no way they could enforce it.
Though it would be kind of fun watching lawyers standing around in a court room discussing how ShadowLord92's Warlock on Warcraft's demon minion Jubtik qualifies as an encroachment of their patent.
On it's face its ridiculous and if we take it seriously its wholly unenforceable.
While I can't speak to Palworld, it seemed like an asset flip from what little footage I watched, the concept of "sub-character" is obviously so large and already common place there is no way they could enforce it.
Though it would be kind of fun watching lawyers standing around in a court room discussing how ShadowLord92's Warlock on Warcraft's demon minion Jubtik qualifies as an encroachment of their patent.
On it's face its ridiculous and if we take it seriously its wholly unenforceable.
1 Likes
patents should never be used like this to begin with.
patents should be used as an invention, not an way to monopolize an idea.
for example, if someone figured out how to record audio into vynil, that is an invetion, if someone write an fiction that by drinking an magic potion, you get the powers to fly, teleport or cast thunders from your hands, that is an idea.
i cant point enough how stupid patenting ideas is, you arent contributing to society, its not you are spending tons of money, effort or time into making new discoveries of how to improve tech, art, healthy , life in general, you are just limiting creativity of others.
what difference make if an monster appeared on the battle field after you throw an magic sphere, card or cube? none, there is no real cause and effect relationship!
its just an specific set of words used to describe an concept.
Last edited by elmapul on 11 Sep 2025 at 2:09 am UTC
patents should be used as an invention, not an way to monopolize an idea.
for example, if someone figured out how to record audio into vynil, that is an invetion, if someone write an fiction that by drinking an magic potion, you get the powers to fly, teleport or cast thunders from your hands, that is an idea.
i cant point enough how stupid patenting ideas is, you arent contributing to society, its not you are spending tons of money, effort or time into making new discoveries of how to improve tech, art, healthy , life in general, you are just limiting creativity of others.
what difference make if an monster appeared on the battle field after you throw an magic sphere, card or cube? none, there is no real cause and effect relationship!
its just an specific set of words used to describe an concept.
Last edited by elmapul on 11 Sep 2025 at 2:09 am UTC
4 Likes
sneakeyboard a day ago
This definitely gets into political stuff and I know better than to go there but it's always amazed me how people who should be retired are not only public servants but they're still deciding laws for an entire country.
A hauntingly familiar issue:
This happened before most of us held a controller or used a computer but Mortal Kombat had to deal with their highly "realistic and violent" game in the mid 90s which lead to the creation of the ESRB--you know those silly labels: E for everyone, etc. The funny thing was that the arguments congress made involved a plastic gun which was never used in the game.
Now the MK issue wasn't a patent battle in court but my point is policymakers don't understand how the technology works at all. Having a legal system which promotes looking for and exploiting loopholes is what results in problems such as the one in this article. I'm sure Japan's courtrooms are frequented by Nintendo's lawyers but at least in the U.S. most lawyers look for loopholes. This issue evolving into a legal battle is simply the byproduct of decisions made by uniformed policymakers.
A hauntingly familiar issue:
This happened before most of us held a controller or used a computer but Mortal Kombat had to deal with their highly "realistic and violent" game in the mid 90s which lead to the creation of the ESRB--you know those silly labels: E for everyone, etc. The funny thing was that the arguments congress made involved a plastic gun which was never used in the game.
Now the MK issue wasn't a patent battle in court but my point is policymakers don't understand how the technology works at all. Having a legal system which promotes looking for and exploiting loopholes is what results in problems such as the one in this article. I'm sure Japan's courtrooms are frequented by Nintendo's lawyers but at least in the U.S. most lawyers look for loopholes. This issue evolving into a legal battle is simply the byproduct of decisions made by uniformed policymakers.
1 Likes
So basically Nintendo lowered themselves to the rank of a patent troll.
I remember Gnome being targeted by one. The patent was literally hand drawn with a few lines. And it was something stupid like this moves there.
A crowd funder was started and Gnome won. And they made a counter claim to put this patent back in the public domain. Which was granted.
https://opensource.org/blog/gnome-patent-troll-stripped-of-patent-rights [External Link]
I remember Gnome being targeted by one. The patent was literally hand drawn with a few lines. And it was something stupid like this moves there.
A crowd funder was started and Gnome won. And they made a counter claim to put this patent back in the public domain. Which was granted.
https://opensource.org/blog/gnome-patent-troll-stripped-of-patent-rights [External Link]
2 Likes
Mountain Man a day ago
Summoning a character to fight for you has been a game mechanic for decades with countless examples of prior art. There is no way Nintendo should have been granted this patent. It's absurd.
I've been a Nintendo fanboy for many years, but some of their recent actions make it very hard to like them. I miss the days when we had the dynamic trio of Iwata, Miyamato, and Reggie
Last edited by Mountain Man on 11 Sep 2025 at 10:34 pm UTC
I've been a Nintendo fanboy for many years, but some of their recent actions make it very hard to like them. I miss the days when we had the dynamic trio of Iwata, Miyamato, and Reggie
Last edited by Mountain Man on 11 Sep 2025 at 10:34 pm UTC
0 Likes
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