USPTO orders reexamination of Nintendo summoning patent amid Palworld

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has ordered a rare reexamination of a Nintendo patent that covers a gameplay mechanic in which a player summons a supporting subcharacter to fight, a move that could complicate the company's ongoing patent litigation against Palworld developer PocketPair. The order, issued this month by USPTO Director John A. Squires, cites earlier patents that may call the novelty of Nintendo's claim into question. The action follows a recent decision by Japan's Patent Office to reject a related Nintendo patent application as lacking an inventive step.

Squires wrote that "substantial new questions of patentability have arisen" after examiners identified prior publications, known as Yabe and Taura, that describe companions fighting alongside a player in either automatic or manual modes. The U.S. patent at issue, numbered 12,403,397 and granted in September, covers a subcharacter that can be commanded by the player or act autonomously. Nintendo has two months to respond to the reexamination order, and other parties may seek to contest the patent during the review. A reexamination initiated directly by the USPTO director is uncommon.