After a reexamination ordered by the US Patent and Trade Office director John A. Squires last November, the USPTO has revoked a patent granted to Nintendo for a game mechanic involving “summoning a character and letting it fighter another.” In a patent I described as “incredibly vague,” it seems the USPTO agrees with that idea and has rejected all 26 claims made in the patent. In other words, it has been completely revoked.
As reported by GamesFray, when USPTO director Squires ordered his reexamination, Nintendo was given a few weeks to respond to the claim. Having let the deadline slip, the USPTO went ahead with its investigation. While not viewing any gameplay or playing any games to make its decision, the USPTO ruled the case as obvious and non-final. What that means is Nintendo has been given another two months to respond to this decision, which can be extended if Nintendo files for such a thing.
In his investigation, Squires focused on the claim of having a sub-character fight alongside the player via automatic or manual control. From his determination, it matched similar patents granted to other companies, including Konami and even Nintendo in the past. In this decision, two further examples are brought up: a patent called “Motokura” granted to Nintendo in 2022, and another called “Shimomoto” granted to Bandai Namco in 2020. According to the USPTO, combining all of these patents together is what renders the current 26 claims invalid.
Motokura
Shimomoto
I’m not too up on legalese to really summarize everything else, but it does seem like there is still an avenue Nintendo can explore to win favor back in this case. I don’t like the idea of any company patenting a really broad game idea, so I do hope the USPTO doesn’t allow this to slide. You can read the full breakdown at GamesFray.
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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.
