US Patent Office Orders Reexamination Of Nintendo’s “Summoning Characters” Patent

A few months back, Nintendo was awarded a patent in the US for a mechanic related to “summoning and battling characters”, presumably meant to be used as ammo for their lawsuit against PocketPair’s Palword.

In a surprising turn of events, the US Patent Office has now called for a reexamination of the patent, which could potentially deal a heavy blow to their strategy. According to an update from Gamesfray, USPTO director John A. Squires determined that “substantial new questions of patentability have arisen” due to two previously filed patents, one by Konami in 2002 and the other by Nintendo in 2019. These two patents could be considered “prior art”, and thus put into question whether Nintendo’s latest claim is patentable.

Interestingly, it seems Squires’ decision was partially influenced by “public outrage” that Nintendo’s patent had been approved. Many were concerned that the ambiguous nature of Nintendo’s patent would allow them to go after any game that used monster summoning mechanics, which would stifle any attempts from developers to make monster taming games.

That said, a reexamination isn’t a full revocation of the patent yet, and Nintendo has been given two months to try and mount a defense of its claim. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.