What just happened? Nintendo's campaign against Palworld isn't going smoothly. The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued a non-final rejection of the company's controversial "summon character and let it fight" patent, one of the gameplay patents tied to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company's legal fight against developer Pocketpair.
Nintendo can respond to the decision within two months, amend the claims, and appeal. But the fact that the examiner rejected all 26 claims is hardly a great look for a patent that IP lawyers were hammering long before this latest ruling arrived.
That criticism ramped up last year after the USPTO ordered a reexamination of the patent in November. IP expert Florian Mueller said Nintendo "should never" have received the patent in the first place, while video game patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon told PC Gamer that the claims were "in no way allowable."
– Florian Mueller (@Florian4Gamers) September 11, 2025
It is not hard to see why the patent drew so much heat. It attempted to cover a mechanic in which a player summons a sub-character to aid in battle, either automatically or under direct control.
That may sound Pokémon-specific on paper, but anyone familiar with games beyond Nintendo's stable can immediately think of similar systems. Depending on how broadly you interpret the language, examples range from Persona and Digimon to the likes of Elden Ring.
According to reports, the USPTO relied on combinations of prior art from older US patent applications, including filings from Konami, Bandai Namco, and even Nintendo itself. The office apparently did not even need to look at Palworld to conclude the claims were too broad or insufficiently original in their current form.
Patents, not creature designs, have become Nintendo's weapon of choice in its legal fight with Pocketpair.
As we noted in early 2024 when The Pokémon Company said it was investigating Palworld for potential IP violations, the similarities between some of Pocketpair's monster designs and Nintendo's Pokémon were difficult to ignore. But a straightforward copyright case always looked more difficult than internet outrage suggested.
Instead, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company sued Pocketpair in Japan in September 2024 over multiple patent claims. Those patents cover mechanics related to monster capture and release, as well as mounts, and were filed in 2024 after Palworld had already exploded in popularity, though they stem from older Nintendo filings dating back to 2021.
Pocketpair has already changed parts of Palworld during the dispute, including removing the ability to summon Pals by throwing Pal Spheres in November 2024 and altering gliding mechanics in a later patch.