Nintendo faces another setback in its legal battle against Pocketpair and Palworld. As reported by Games Fray (thanks, IGN), the U.S. Patent Office boss John Squires (no, not quite The Stone Roses guitarist – close, though) has ordered the reexamination of Nintendo’s “summon sub-character and let it fight” patent.
The patent was previously granted “without any objection” to Nintendo, though Squires points to two previous patents from Konami in 2002 and Nintendo itself in 2019 which may viewed as “prior art” references. Squires says that both are “important in deciding whether the claims are patentable,” while each “raises a substantial new question of patentability”.
It’s important to note that the reexamination doesn’t necessarily mean that the patent will ultimately be rejected, but Games Fray writer Florian Mueller says that this is now “highly likely” given the circumstances. Mueller also says that the very nature of the reexamination “further undermines the credibility” of Nintendo’s patent.
As for why this has occurred, Mueller surmises that it’s likely a direct result of the public outrage that followed when news broke of Nintendo’s patent submission. The article argues that “No system is perfect, which is why there must be processes in place to fix issues”.
Mueller closes by stating that there will likely be no further developments in Nintendo’s case against Palworld nor any of the patents that relate to it in this calendar year. Decisions will likely be made in 2026, however, particularly by Presiding Judge Motoyuki Nakashima, who leads the patent division of the Tokyo District Court. Mueller states that, given all of the developments relating to this case, “It is ever more likely that Nintendo will lose”.
Nintendo had recently been dealt another legal blow when its patent related to catching Pokémon was rejected in Japan due to lacking an “inventive step”, and that “the claimed invention(s) could have easily been made by persons who have common knowledge in the technical field”.
Things may still sway in Nintendo’s favour, but to say that this legal battle has been much more compelling than any of us has expected would be an understatement. We’ll be keen to see how things shake out in the months to come.
