US Patent Office Revokes Nintendo’s Patent on Summoning Characters to Make Them Battle

The USPTO revoked Nintendo's patent on summoning characters for battle, rejecting all 26 claims.

USPTO director John A Squires ordered a re-examination after substantial new questions of patentability were identified.

The re-examination cited prior patents, notably Konami's Yabe (2002) and Nintendo's Taura (2020), which describe sub-characters fighting alongside the player.

The USPTO found that combining Taura with Motokura (Nintendo, 2022) or Yabe invalidates 18 of the 26 claims, and combining Shimomoto (Bandai Namco, 2020) with Taura invalidates the remaining eight.

The patent was framed with Pokémon in mind but was broad enough to cover numerous other games.