IP lawyers criticized the American patent system after Nintendo received a patent Pokémon, which rotates around the calling and allowing him to fight.
Games fight informed the patent No. 12 403 397 was awarded by the American Patent Office and trademarks “without any objection” to Nintendo, which is entangled Continuous dispute from Pocketpair’s Palworld.
While the patent sums up how Pokémon’s games work, because you call Pokémon to fight 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 on how the patent is interpreted.
As noted by Games Fray, a patent – submitted in 2023 – allegedly includes the technique that Pocketpair tried to get around. But “it is also a fundamental threat to creativity and innovation in the gaming industry.”
It suggests every game that uses the mechanics listed below, can now potentially cause a lawsuit from Nintendo:
- There must be a computer, console or other computer device, and the game is stored on a drive or a similar memory medium.
- You can move the character in a virtual space.
- You must be able to recall the character. They call it a “subordinate character”, thanks to which they mean that this is not the character of a player, but for example a small monster, such as Pokémon, who the player’s character has at his disposal.
- Then the logic branches, and elements 4 and 5 are mutually exclusive scenarios, after reunification in position 6.
- It is about recalling the “substance” in a place where there is another character, which then (after instructions to do this) fight.
- This alternative scenario consists in recalling the “subordinate substance” in a position in which there is no other form for immediate fight.
- This last step is to send the “substance” in the direction, and then allow the automatic battle to take place with another form. It is not clear whether it is even needed if one previously made step (4), in which the “signature” is basically thrown on a different character.
The reaction to the patent is a mix of shock and concern for what it can mean not only for existing games that use similar mechanics, but also future titles. IP lawyers have also criticized development. IP expert Florian Mueller started to social media To say that Nintendo “should never” have received a patent “Call and let him fight” and a patent lawyer for the video game Kirk Sigmon said Gamer PC “These claims were not allowed in any way.”
These types of patents are used too often in bad faith https://t.co/89972kd6nb
– very AFK (@Cromwelp) September 10, 2025
According to Mueller, the problem is global. “The Japanese patent office also awarded Nintendo outrageous patent,” he said. “They” changed “one of the patents they apply against Palworld in Japan. Outrageous things. “
However, Don McGowan said, former legal director at Pokémon Company Eurogamer The patent will probably be ignored. “I wish Nintendo and Pokémon success, when the first other programmer simply ignores this patent, and if these companies are gathering this developer, the programmer shows the decades of the presentation of the art,” he said: “This is not Bandai Namco with loading patent. “
Nintendo is now the owner of the USA patent No. 12 409 387, which applies to the mechanism of “velvety switching of driving objects”. These latest successful applications now join the set of other patents belonging to the Japanese company, including one that protects the mechanics of using the “interception element” to the gray character in games – In other words, Poké ball.
Everything comes later Nintendo and the Pokémon Company patent process against the developer Palworld Pocketpair. The case covers Three patents Awarded by Japan Patent Office (JPO): two related to the interception and release of monster and one associated with driving characters. All three patents were laid in 2024 after Palworld came out. However, they actually come from earlier Nintendo patents from 2021. In other words, it seems that when Palworld appeared on the stage, Nintendo assembled division patents, which were directed to fight with the alleged violation of the original Palworld patents.
Pocketpair since then introduced changes to the disputed Palworld mechanics. Laty in November 2024 removed the ability to call my buddies, throwing Pokéball with friends (now buddies simply materialize next to you after calling). In May this year, the next Palworld update changed the way the slipping in the sin is to grab the buddies from the gliders, now you just use the equipment for the glider. Then in July Nintendo and Pokémon Company He rewound one of the patents in the case.
During the march at a conference for Game programmers (GDC), Ign sat down at a further conversation with John “Bucky” Buckley, communication director and publisher of the Palworld Developer Pocketpair publishing house. We talked after his conversation at the conference “Summit community management: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop”. During this conversation, Buckley fell into honest details about many Palworld struggles, especially accusations of it using generative artificial intelligence (which since then Pocketpair had ranged quite strongly) and the stealing Pokemon models for his own buddies (claim that the person who originally made it has been withdrawn from that time). He He even commented A bit about the lawsuit of violating the Nintendo patent against the studio, saying that “he came as a shock” for the studio and was “something that no one even thought”.
Wesley is a director, news in IGN. Find it on Twitter on @św100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpole@ign.com or confidentially at spine@proton.me.
