The US Patent Office have rejected a Nintendo Pokemon patent for summoning subcharacters

While it likely won't affect the ongoing Japan lawsuit between Nintendo / Pokemon and Pocketpair / Palworld, it is at least good news for game devs elsewhere.

As reported by Games Fray that keep up with all the lawsuits going on, they noted Nintendo's US patent for summoning a character to battle was rejected based on prior art from earlier patent applications from Nintendo, Konami and Bandai Namco. Even though it has been rejected, Nintendo can still appeal the decision and potentially get it fully reinstated.

In this case it's a little confusing because of how it has been explained in some places. The patent Nintendo had wasn't as simple as just summoning a character to battle (lots of games have this), it is a lot more involved in that, as the patent system at least seems to need some unique involved mechanics to be able to have a patent attached.

Pictured - Pokémon Scarlet, Credit: Nintendo

Nintendo's patent was all about two specific game characters working together, including against enemies. The first character being a movable player (you) and the other a sub character that can be summoned to appear with actions based on different inputs. These inputs include controlling a battle directly between the sub character and an enemy, automatic battles, the sub character automatically moving if no enemy was where they were summoned to a predetermined direction on the field based on another input from the player, the sub character following the player, and if the enemy is at their destination to then control a battle.

As you would expect from a patent its rather on the wordy side, but even from the highlights of it, it's still somewhat overall a simple sounding system. Even if the technical wording on it is quite long.

Our thoughts: It is completely ridiculous that gameplay elements can have a patent at all. Software patents as a whole are a curse on the gaming and hardware industry that only cause issues for everyone and prevent competition.