Nintendo has been hit with another blow in its ongoing legal battle with Palworld, as the US Patent Office has rejected its controversial 'summon character and let it fight' Pokémon patent.
According to Games Fray's Florian Mueller (via VGC), the non-final rejection — meaning Nintendo has two months to respond (or more if it choses) — the USPTO has rejected all 26 claims made in the patent, which essentially revokes it, unless Nintendo chooses to respond.
This follows USPTO director John Squires order for the patent to be reexamined in November 2025, which is an extremely rare thing to happen.Of the 15,000 ex parte examinations requests since 1981, only 175 have been granted.
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Mueller reports that the patent was "revoked" without the need to play or even look at a single game, as it's based on prior art reference from previous US patent applications
Specifically, Squires highlighted four previous patents: Taura, a patent granted to Nintendo in 2020 that talks about sub-characters who battle alongside players; Yabe, which was granted to Konami in 2002 and looks at both automatic or manually-controlled sub-characters (and pairs nicely with Taura, as you might have guessed). These make up 18 of the 26 claims.
Motokura, granted to Nintendo in 2022, and Shimomoto, granted to Bandai Namco in 2020, are also named in the document. Combining these two with Taura, or combining Yabe and Shimomoto with Taura, invalidates all of Nintendo's claims in the patent.
It's perhaps not a surprise given how widespread the use of summoning characters or sub-characters has been in gaming for years — say hello to Digimon, Persona, SMT, and even Elden Ring to some degree. We're not even mentioning the countless indie titles that use monster-catching and battling in some fashion.
And it was for this reason that, after the USPTO granted the patent last year, it drew heavy criticism. Former TPC legal expert Don McGowan said he thought companies would "ignore it" because of how widespread it already is, while video game lP lawyer Kirk Sigmon said "I strongly disagree with this result: In my view, these claims were in no way allowable."
Again, since this is non-final, Nintendo has a chance to respond and even appeal to the Federal Circuit. And, if even one claim in the patent is Valid, Nintendo can still use it to go after others who use this mechanic.
Of course, this is all tangential to the Palworld lawsuit in Japan, where three main patents are involved — two focusing on monster catching, and one related to animal mounts and characters. One of these patents, focusing on using objects to catch creatures, has already been rejected in Japan.
What do you think of this decision? Do you think Nintendo will respond? Let us know in the comments.