Just weeks after Japan rejected Nintendo's initial attempts to patent various Pokémon-themed mechanics for grabbing and throwing monsters – a patent that could prove crucial in the company's ongoing patent infringement lawsuit against Palmyre – The US has taken the “rare” step of reconsidering a previously issued Pokemon patent, believing it may be invalid.
Back in September, the US Patent and Trademark Office granted Nintendo a new patent (Patent No. 12,403,397, filed March 2023), covering the game mechanics of summoning a supporting character to battle an enemy. However, how Games Fray reportedUSPTO Director John A. Squires has now “personally ordered” the organization to reconsider this patent after discovering prior art references in two old patents.
In his order for re-examinationSquires says he “determined that significant new patentability issues arose” with respect to certain claims in Nintendo's issued patent. These statements generally refer to the control of the player character on the field in virtual space based on movement data; causing a subcharacter to appear in a field based on input; using a secondary character to fight an enemy located in the same location based on the data entered; placing a secondary character in an unoccupied space and automatically controlling his movements, as well as situations where the battle unfolds automatically.
However, Squires' order specifically mentions two earlier patents—one filed by Konami in 2002, the other by Nintendo in 2019—both related to manual and automatic control of players and supporting characters in virtual field and combat. “Therefore,” the order continues, “a reasonable expert would consider [the patents] be important in deciding whether claims are patentable, and [each] raises a new substantive issue of patentability.”
Games Fray notes that Squires' order (apparently the first such reexamination order since 2012) does not automatically mean that Nintendo's patent will be revoked, but does make it “highly likely.” Nintendo has two months to respond to the order, and third parties can also submit their own concerns during that period.
All this follows a recent decision by the Japan Patent Office reject the application filed by Nintendo last March – an attempt to patent certain mechanisms for grasping and throwing objects – on the basis that the “claimed invention(s)” already existed “in Japan or other foreign countries before the filing of the patent application.” The rejection, which is not conclusive, was based on documentation provided by an unnamed third party (presumably developer Palworld Pocketpair) indicating instances of similar mechanics existing prior to application in games such as Monster Hunter 4. Ark: Survival DevelopmentAnd Pokemon Go.
Nintendo filed a controversial lawsuit against Pocketpair last year. next The hugely successful launch of Palworldaccusing the studio of violating “multiple” patents. In response to Pocketpair promised to fight the lawsuitstating that it wants to ensure that small studios cannot be “hampered or discouraged from realizing creative ideas.”
