Nintendo now has a US patent on summoning characters and making them battle for you

[Turbo Kid]

Back in 1994, Final Fantasy III (VI) came with a manual and a map!

I just remembered, it had a poster too. Games used to come loaded with stuff

 

[What's His Face]

Update for those who care: A little over a week ago, Japanese courts rejected the patent this thread is about in the Pokémon/Nintendo vs Pocketpair lawsuit. Within the last few hours, John A. Squires (the director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office) has ordered a rare reexamination of Nintendo's controversial 'summon character and let it fight' Pokémon patent after it was heavily criticized by IP lawyers.

The reason? The director "became aware" of the "prior art" argument that IP lawyers, the media, and consumers like us were loudly criticizing the patent office for. Squires pointed to two previous U.S. patent applications as prior art references. One filed by Konami in 2002, and one filed by Nintendo themselves in 2019.

• Konami (2002): A U.S. patent application that proposed the ability to perform battles in both a manual and an automatic mode.
• Nintendo (2019): A U.S. patent application that also described the ability for a player to control a character in a virtual space and to control battles manually or automatically.

What will this mean for The Pokémon Company/Nintendo's lawsuit against Pocketpair and their 'vastly superior to Pokémon' game PalWorld? Only time will tell, but it won't be until next year as the Japanese courts are pretty much wrapping-up for 2025.

 

[RustySK]

Update for those who care: A little over a week ago, Japanese courts rejected the patent this thread is about in the Pokémon/Nintendo vs Pocketpair lawsuit. Within the last few hours, John A. Squires (the director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office) has ordered a rare reexamination of Nintendo's controversial 'summon character and let it fight' Pokémon patent after it was heavily criticized by IP lawyers.

The reason? The director "became aware" of the "prior art" argument that IP lawyers, the media, and consumers like us were loudly criticizing the patent office for. Squires pointed to two previous U.S. patent applications as prior art references. One filed by Konami in 2002, and one filed by Nintendo themselves in 2019.

• Konami (2002): A U.S. patent application that proposed the ability to perform battles in both a manual and an automatic mode.
• Nintendo (2019): A U.S. patent application that also described the ability for a player to control a character in a virtual space and to control battles manually or automatically.

What will this mean for The Pokémon Company/Nintendo's lawsuit against Pocketpair and their 'vastly superior to Pokémon' game PalWorld? Only time will tell, but it won't be until next year as the Japanese courts are pretty much wrapping-up for 2025.

Fantastic news. Seems like they only managed to damage their already spiralling reputation with this one so far, let's hope it stays that way. This kind of thing deserves to backfire as hard as possible.