Nintendo's 'Summon' Patent Is So Bad the Head of the USPTO Just Stepped in to Kill It
The smoking gun? A 20-year-old Konami patent and, hilariously, Nintendo's own previous work.
I've been following Nintendo's legal war against Palworld, and it's been a weird ride. Nintendo's whole case is that they're the real innovators. To prove it, they're suing Pocketpair in Japan over three patents.
One of those patents is... let's say, laughably broad. It's for the revolutionary idea of "summoning a subcharacter and letting it fight in one of two battle modes" manual or automatic. Sound familiar? Like, in every game ever?
Well, that patent was so obviously bullshit that it's caused a massive, rare backlash. In a stunning move, the Director of the entire U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, John A. Squires, has just personally stepped in and ordered a reexamination of it. (By GamesFray)
An "Almost Unprecedented" Move
Let me be clear: this never happens. The USPTO Director doesn't just wake up and decide to dunk on a specific patent. The last time a Director personally initiated a reexamination like this was in 2012.
The only plausible reason for this is the massive public outrage and negative publicity that followed when this patent was first granted. The USPTO looked stupid, and now they're cleaning house.
The Beautiful Irony
And here's the best part. The official reason for the reexamination? The Director cited two pieces of "prior art" that prove this idea isn't new.
The first is a Konami patent application... from 2002.
The second, in a beautiful, chef's-kiss twist of fate, is another Nintendo patent application from 2019 that they apparently forgot about. They got torpedoed by their own filing.
What This Means for 'Palworld'
So what does this mean? It means this U.S. patent is almost certainly going to be revoked. All its claims are a "house of cards".
More importantly, this further undermines the credibility of Nintendo's entire lawsuit against Pocketpair. This is the second major patent-related blow they've taken in two weeks, after the Japan Patent Office also rejected a related application.
They're not looking like innovators; they're looking like bullies who are losing their grip.
This is just fantastic news. It's a win for Pocketpair and a win for common-sense patent law. Now, as one user on Reddit pointed out, can we please get these guys to look at the Warner Bros. "Nemesis System" patent? That's the next big boss we need to take down.