Nintendo and The Pokémon Company received U.S. Patent 12,403,397 on September 2, 2025. It describes a particular game system in which a player brings a “sub character” into play and battle behavior changes depending on the character’s location and the player’s inputs. The grant is separate from the Japanese patent-infringement case against Palworld developer Pocketpair: the available sources do not establish that this U.S. patent is asserted in that case or that Palworld infringes it.
Which patent did Nintendo secure?
The patent is U.S. Patent 12,403,397, titled “Storage medium, information processing system, information processing apparatus, and game processing method.” Its record names Nintendo Co., Ltd. and The Pokémon Company as assignees and gives September 2, 2025, as its grant and publication date. Read the patent text and record.
The title can sound broader than the mechanism the patent describes. It is not a blanket patent on every game character summon or companion that fights. The described method combines particular player inputs, character positions, and battle behavior. Patent record aggregators also caution that their legal-status fields are assumptions; the patent text is useful for the grant date and technical description, but that field should not be treated as a definitive legal conclusion.
What does the patent describe?
The game-processing description starts with a player-controlled character moving through a virtual field. A player input causes a sub-character to appear. What happens next depends in part on whether an enemy is at the sub-character’s appearance location:
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- An enemy is at the appearance location: a battle mode proceeds based on player input.
- No enemy is at the appearance location: the sub-character can be automatically controlled and moved.
- The player gives a further input directing the sub-character toward an enemy: a battle can proceed automatically.
Those conditions matter. Calling it simply a patent on “summoning” or “companion fighting” strips away the location and control-state details in the patent’s description. PocketGamer.biz reported on the grant on September 11, 2025; the patent document itself is the primary source for its technical wording.
Is this the patent in Nintendo’s Palworld lawsuit?
That has not been established by the available sources. Nintendo’s official announcement says Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed suit against Pocketpair in Tokyo District Court on September 18, 2024, seeking an injunction and compensation for damages because Palworld allegedly infringed multiple patent rights. Nintendo’s September 19, 2024 announcement does not identify this 2025 U.S. patent as one of the asserted rights.
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The distinction is both geographic and procedural. The headline patent is a U.S. patent grant; the announced infringement case is a Japanese court proceeding. The U.S. grant alone does not show that the patent was added to the Japanese case, that the two proceedings concern the same claims, or that Palworld infringes the patent. An EU Intellectual Property Helpdesk explainer published July 24, 2025 discussed other U.S. patent filings connected to the dispute and said Nintendo had not filed a U.S. lawsuit at that time; that dated account does not establish later U.S. litigation status. Read the explainer.
What happened to the U.S. patent after the grant?
In an April 1, 2026 report, Nintendo Life said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had issued a non-final rejection of all 26 claims during reexamination and that Nintendo could respond. A non-final rejection is not the same as a final cancellation: it reports an examination action, not a final determination that the patent no longer exists. Nor does it decide the separate Japanese infringement case. Read Nintendo Life’s report.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallThe report also described the reexamination as unusual, citing 15,000 ex parte examination requests and 175 granted. Those figures are Nintendo Life’s reported context, not independently verified statistics here; they are not needed to understand the status of the patent’s claims.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is known about the Japanese case now?
Pre-October reporting described the Tokyo case as pending. A July 2026 overview by Japanese patent attorneys reported an October 1, 2026 court event and said a court opinion was expected November 9; Patent Arcade’s July 27 account likewise discussed those dates as upcoming and reported that the lawsuit’s claims had been narrowed to earlier versions of Palworld. Read the Japanese patent attorneys’ overview and Patent Arcade’s July 27 account.
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Those reports predate the October 1 event. The sources available here do not verify what occurred at that hearing or establish a later court ruling, so the November 9 date should be understood as an expected date reported beforehand—not confirmation that an opinion was issued.
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