In a new development that is 100% positive to not cause any negative effects for the games industry, both Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have recently filed and secured a patent for a gameplay mechanic involving “summoning a character and letting it fight another.” If you’re thinking that sounds incredibly vague, that’s probably the point. It very clearly relates to Pokémon, but it also seemingly relates to any type of game where players can summon different characters to do battle with enemies. This could even be Pikmin!
While initially filed in March 2023, the USPTO has finally granted Nintendo and TPC this patent as of last week. It also ties into another patent related to Pokémon, which covers the “smooth switching of riding objects,” which is also incredibly vague. Many outlets and people on social media are assuming Nintendo is snatching up all kinds of patents as it continues to battle Palworld in court. Where my mind immediately goes is to the “Loading Screen Patent” that Namco filed in 1998. Because of that specific patent, games not published or developed by Namco across the PS1-PS4 generation could not feature mini-games on loading screens to kill time.
Nintendo has proven itself to be incredibly litigious in recent years. In just this past month, we’ve reported on Nintendo winning settlements in two cases and a modder making a “Cease & Desist” character mod for Smash Bros. Melee. If you honestly think Nintendo won’t be leveraging this new patent against other companies, I have a bridge to sell you for $5.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
