Nintendo Patent on Monster-Summoning and Fighting Mechanic Granted Too Quickly, Says IP Lawyer

Speaking to PC Gamer, video game patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon said that the granting of US patent 12,403,397, a patent that talks about summoning a character and making that same character battle for you, was granted way too quickly.

Additionally, the US patent 12,409,387, a patent that involves players riding and flying systems similar to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, has also been granted this week. Sigmon added that while this patent had pushback, it was only barely. Its initial application was deemed invalid because it was too similar to Tencent and Xbox-related patents, but after interviews between Nintendo and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), it was allowed.

Sigmon had strong words regarding the granting of the patents, saying that it’s an indictment of American patent law. Sigmon added, “They have been an embarrassing failure of the US patent system.”

He believes that US patent ‘387 would be obvious to a “Person of Ordinary Skill in the Art”, a legal fiction in patent laws which refers to a hypothetical person having the normal skills and knowledge in the particular technical field, without being a genius, and whether the patent would be obvious to them. If it were, then the invention would not be patentable.

US patent ‘397, on the other hand, is a lot more dangerous, as it talks about summoning and battling with “sub-characters.” While the patent suggested that it’s based on the Let’s Go! mechanics of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, very similar systems exist in other games.

Games Fray’s Florian Mueller believes that the granting of the patent can be very harmful to the industry, as games like the upcoming Honkai: Nexus Anima can be accused of infringing due to their riding mechanic and similarities to Pokémon.

An immediate use for the patents granted to Nintendo would be the ongoing lawsuit against Pocketpair. Games Fray mentioned that they tried to access the Japanese case files of the mentioned lawsuit, but the file was with the judge and thus was unavailable to the eyes of the public.

Pocketpair has already changed its gliding mechanics and how Pals work due to the lawsuit, which resulted in players developing a mod to restore them.