USPTO Rejects All 26 Claims of Nintendo's Controversial Summoning Patent

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has rejected every single claim in Nintendo's "summon character and let it fight" patent.

The patent in question, U.S. Patent No. 12,403,397, often referred to as the “’397 patent,” was originally granted to Nintendo in September 2025.

It covered the mechanics of summoning a sub-character and directing them to battle either automatically or under the player's full manual control. The most obvious real-world application of this mechanic is, of course, Pokémon, where players throw out their creatures to fight on their behalf.

However, the patent was broad enough to potentially cover many other games too, including Persona, Pikmin, Digimon, and even Elden Ring, depending on interpretation.

The backlash from the IP community was swift. Shortly after the patent was granted, IP expert Florian Mueller stated publicly that Nintendo "should never" have received this patent in the first place. Video game patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon was equally blunt, telling PC Gamer that "these claims were in no way allowable."

Those criticisms apparently reached the right ears. In November 2025, USPTO's new Director John A. Squires personally ordered an ex parte reexamination of the patent, which was "extremely rare". It was the first time since 2012 that a USPTO director had personally intervened without another company formally requesting it.

USPTO Rejects Nintendo’s Summoning Patent in "Extremely Rare" Review

According to reports by Games Fray, the examiner then proceeded to reject all 26 claims of the patent, relying entirely on prior art in the form of previously published U.S. patent applications. What makes this particularly interesting is that the examiner did not look at a single video game to reach that conclusion. The rejection was built on four prior filings:

• Taura (2019): A Nintendo patent that already covered the basics of summoning a sub-character to fight alongside the player.

• Yabe (2002): A Konami patent from the PS2 era describing two distinct battle modes, one automatic and one manually controlled.

• Motokura (2020): Another Nintendo filing covering how characters are positioned and moved during gameplay transitions.

• Shimomoto (2019): A Bandai Namco patent that described the logic behind where a summoned character should appear relative to the player.

As per the findings, combining the Taura patent with either Yabe or Motokura is enough to invalidate 18 of the 26 claims. Adding Shimomoto into the mix provides what the USPTO called the "missing link" that brings down the remaining eight claims.

This is currently a non-final rejection. Nintendo has a two-month window to respond, and that period can be extended upon request. From there, the examiner will issue a follow-up decision considering Nintendo's arguments. If Nintendo disagrees with that outcome, it can appeal to the Federal Circuit.

Patent Rejection Could Shake Pokémon vs. Palworld Battle

This all ties into a broader picture. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are currently involved in an ongoing patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, the studio behind Palworld, in Japan.

That case has gone quiet since October 2025, but it remains active. The Japan lawsuit centers on three patents related to monster capture, release, and riding mechanics, all filed in 2024 but derived from earlier 2021 Nintendo patents.

Last November, the Japan Patent Office rejected one of Nintendo’s monster capture patents, citing older games like ARK: Survival Evolved (2015), Monster Hunter 4 (2013), and Kantai Collection (2013) as prior examples of similar mechanics, further boosting Pocketpair's position.

Pocketpair, for its part, has already made several changes to Palworld in response to the lawsuit, including removing the ability to summon Pals using Pal Spheres and altering how gliding works in the game.