IP lawyers have criticised the U.S. patent system after Nintendo was awarded a Pokémon patent that revolves around summoning a character and letting it fight.
Games Fray reported that Patent No. 12,403,397 was granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office "without any objection” to Nintendo, which is embroiled in ongoing litigation with Pocketpair's Palworld.
While the patent pretty much sums up how Pokémon games work in that you summon Pokémon to battle other Pokémon in the hope of adding them to your collection, there are countless other games that use similar mechanics, such as Persona, Digimon, and even Elden Ring, depending upon how the patent is interpreted.
As Games Fray pointed out, the patent — filed in 2023 — ostensibly covers a technique that Pocketpair tried to work around. But it also "poses a fundamental threat to creativity and innovation in the games industry.”
It suggests any game that makes use of the mechanics listed below could now potentially trigger an infringement lawsuit from Nintendo:
- There must be a PC, console, or other computing device, and the game is stored on a drive or similar storage medium.
- You can move a character in a virtual space.
- You must be able to summon a character. They call it a “sub character” by which they mean it’s not the player character, but, for example, a little monster such as a Pokémon that the player character has at their disposal.
- Then the logic branches out, with items 4 and 5 being mutually exclusive scenarios, before reuniting again in item 6.
- This is about summoning the “sub character” in a place where there already is another character that it will then (when instructed to do so) fight.
- This alternative scenario is about summoning the “sub character” at a position where there is no other character to fight immediately.
- This final step is about sending the “sub character” in a direction and then letting an automatic battle ensue with another character. It is not clear whether this is even needed if one previously executed step (4) where the “sub character” will basically be thrown at another character.
Reaction to the patent is a mix of shock and concern about what it might mean not just for existing games that use similar mechanics, but future titles. IP lawyers, too, have criticized the development. IP expert Florian Mueller took to social media to say Nintendo “should never” have received a "summon character and let it fight" patent in the first place, while video game patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon told PC Gamer "these claims were in no way allowable."
These types of patents are too often used in bad faith https://t.co/89972KD6NB
— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) September 10, 2025
According to Mueller, the problem is global. “The Japan Patent Office also granted Nintendo an outrageous patent,” he said. “They ‘amended’ one of the patents they're using against Palworld in Japan. Outrageous stuff.”
However, Don McGowan, former chief legal officer at The Pokémon Company, told Eurogamer the patent will likely be ignored. "I wish Nintendo and Pokémon good luck when the first other developer just entirely ignores this patent and, if those companies sue that developer, the developer shows decades of prior art," he said: "This isn't Bandai Namco with the loading screen patent.”
Nintendo also now owns U.S. Patent No. 12,409,387, which relates to the "smooth switching of riding objects" mechanism. These latest successful filings now join a suite of other patents owned by the Japanese company, including one that protects the mechanic of using a "capture item" to snare characters in games — a Poké Ball, in other words.
It all comes after Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s patent lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair. The case involves three patents granted by the Japan Patent Office (JPO): two related to monster capture and release, and one related to riding characters. All three patents were filed in 2024, after Palworld came out. However, they are actually derived from earlier Nintendo patents dating from 2021. In other words, it seems that once Palworld came on the scene, Nintendo filed divisional patents that were geared to fight specifically against Palworld’s alleged infringement of the original patents.
Since then, Pocketpair has made changes to Palworld’s disputed mechanics. The November 2024 patch removed the ability to summon Pals by throwing Pokéball-like Pal Spheres (now Pals just materialize next to you when summoned). In May this year, another Palworld update changed how you can glide in the game — instead of directly grabbing onto Glider Pals, now you just simply use Pal-buffed Glider equipment. Then, in July, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company reworded one of the patents in the case.
At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March, IGN sat down for an extended conversation with John “Bucky” Buckley, communications director and publishing manager for Palworld developer Pocketpair. We spoke following his talk at the conference, 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.' During that talk, Buckley went into candid detail about a number of Palworld’s struggles, especially the accusations of it using generative AI (which Pocketpair has since debunked pretty soundly) and stealing Pokemon’s models for its own Pals (a claim that the person who originally made it has since retracted). He even commented a bit on Nintendo’s patent infringement lawsuit against the studio, saying it “came as a shock” to the studio and was “something that no one even considered.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
