Nintendo now has a US patent on summoning characters and making them battle for you

[cm2]

Read from windows central:

Nintendo isn’t slowing down in its legal crusade against Palworld. While the patent infringement case against Pocketpair continues in Japan, the real story may be unfolding in the U.S.

As we’ve covered before, Nintendo isn’t just fighting one lawsuit. It's been quietly stockpiling patents and preparing for a potential American case, too. And the latest one is a big deal. The newest patent is particularly egregious and could have massive implications for the entire games industry.

Last week, Nintendo quietly secured a U.S. patent that, on paper, gives it ownership over one of the most common mechanics in gaming: summoning a character and having it fight another.

The Patent '397 covers the fundamental mechanics of summoning a character to have it fight another. So yes, sounds like Pokémon. However, it also describes things that many other games do.

Unlike many patents, which often face heavy scrutiny or rejections before they’re approved, this one glided through the U.S. Patent Office without objections. It was filed in March 2023 and granted just last week.

Patent '397 is potentially explosive for the gaming industry, because it isn't just about Palworld. If a game does all of the following, it could be challenged.

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 your main character in a virtual space.
You can summon a secondary character (called the “sub character” in the patent).
If there’s an enemy present, the summoned character fights it (either automatically or based on your input.)
If there isn’t, the summoned character can still move and fight when it encounters an enemy later.
If a game does those things, Nintendo now has a patent that could be used to argue infringement. I'm sure you can think of 100s of games that do this. This isn’t just a Pokémon thing. The patent language is so broad that it could arguably apply to mechanics across RPGs, action games, MMOs, and the list goes on.

[Tiger21820]

I said before, and I'll say it again:

Nintendo is EVERY pejorative in the dictionary! Enough said!

[Tiger21820]

Jennifer Liu is a disgusting, despicable, and depraved old bat! I hope 株式会社ポケモン KabushikiGaishaPokemon make an example out of her!

[cm2]

read from VGC:

The United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) has revoked a patent it granted Nintendo last year, based on a gameplay mechanic used in other games.

Two months later USPTO director John A Squires personally ordered a re-examination of the patent – the first time since 2012 that a USPTO director had personally done so without another company officially getting involved – citing previous patents which might have made it invalid.

Now, as reported by Games Fray, the USPTO has decided to ‘reject’ all 26 claims made in the patent, meaning it has now been revoked.

This is a non-final decision – Nintendo how has two months to respond, or longer if it asks for an extension, and there can be an appeal made to the Federal Circuit if it doesn’t agree with the decision.

Nintendo’s patent involved summoning other characters and making them fight for the player, the most obvious real-world example being a Pokémon game where a player can summon Pokémon and use them to battle other Pokémon.

When ordering the re-examination of the patent, Squires specifically focused on the patent’s claim to having a sub-character fight alongside you with the option to make them fight either automatically or via manual control.

In his order, Squires said he had “determined that substantial new questions of patentability have arisen” based on the publications of two previous patents, named as Yabe and Taura (based on the inventors credited on the patents).

The Yabe patent was granted in 2002 to Konami, and refers to a sub-character fighting alongside the player either automatically or manually, while the Taura patent was granted in 2020 to Nintendo itself, and also refers to a sub-character who battles alongside the player.

The USPTO’s decision to reject the patent also cites two more previous patents – another patent named Motokura which was granted to Nintendo in 2022, and a patent called Shimomoto which was granted in 2020 to Bandai Namco.

According to the USPTO, if Nintendo’s Taura patent is combined with either its Motokua patent or Konami’s Yabe patent, it makes 18 of the 26 claims in the new patent invalid. By also combining Bandai Namco’s Shimomoto patent, this provides the “missing link” which makes the other eight claims invalid.

[Demon_skeith]

I'm really happy to see it revoked, Nintendo should never have done this.