Short answer: Nintendo and The Pokémon Company did not patent the abstract idea of summoning a character and making it fight. They did obtain U.S. Patent No. 12,403,397, but its claims describe a substantially narrower game-processing system involving a player character, a summoned “sub character,” designated locations, enemy detection, and particular battle and movement states.
That U.S. patent is also separate from the three Japanese patents publicly identified in the 2024 lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair.
Where the viral claim came from
The controversy followed the grant of U.S. Patent No. 12,403,397 on September 2, 2025. Its official title is Storage medium, information processing system, information processing apparatus, and game processing method. The patent is assigned to Nintendo Co., Ltd. and The Pokémon Company. The public record lists an August 16, 2022 priority date, a March 1, 2023 U.S. filing date, and publication of the application on February 22, 2024. Read the patent record.
Reports and social-media summaries reduced the patent to “summoning a character and making it battle.” That is a convenient description of one gameplay theme, not the legal scope of the claims. A patent claim is assessed by its required elements and operations, not by its shortest headline.
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What claim 1 actually describes
Claim 1 uses technical language such as “player character” and “sub character,” rather than claiming ownership of Pokémon, monsters, or creature battles as a genre. In ordinary language, its sequence is roughly:
- The player controls a player character in a game environment.
- An input summons or launches a separate sub-character.
- The sub-character appears at a selected or designated location.
- The system detects whether an enemy character is present at that location.
- Depending on the game state, the sub-character enters a defined battle mode or another specified mode.
- Additional input can direct the sub-character to move to another designated location or affect how its battle behavior proceeds.
The claim also specifies particular input-controlled or automated battle behavior. Those details matter: they are limitations that must be considered together, rather than optional flavor text.
What the patent does not mean
- It does not give Nintendo ownership of creature-collecting games.
- It does not cover every game in which one character calls an ally.
- It does not automatically cover every turn-based, real-time, or automated battle system.
- It does not make a throw animation, capsule, card, spell, or other deployment device infringing by itself.
A game that merely has collectible creatures, summoned allies, or battles does not necessarily practice every limitation of this claim. Infringement is a limitation-by-limitation legal question, and validity is a separate question.
The patent is narrower than the slogan—but it is still a real patent
It would be inaccurate to say that Nintendo and Pokémon “patented nothing” related to summoning a character into combat. The patent was issued and published as US12,403,397B2. The more accurate statement is that the patent claims a particular arrangement of game operations, not the broad concept of making summoned characters fight.
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The patent specification and drawings may discuss multiple embodiments, but enforceable scope is determined primarily by the claims. That distinction explains why both extremes are misleading: “Nintendo patented Pokémon battles” overstates the claims, while “Nintendo did not patent summoning and battling” ignores the issued document.
It was not one of the patents publicly listed in the Palworld case
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced a patent-infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair in Japan on September 19, 2024. The case was filed in the Tokyo District Court and sought an injunction and damages concerning Palworld. Nintendo’s announcement described the action as a patent case, not a copyright or trademark lawsuit.
In a November 8, 2024 statement, Pocketpair publicly identified the Japanese patents at issue as:
| Japanese patent | Publicly described subject matter |
|---|---|
| 7,545,191 | Patents Pocketpair identified in the Japanese litigation; public descriptions associate the dispute with creature capture or deployment, battle-state interactions, and riding or movement mechanics. |
| 7,493,117 | |
| 7,528,390 |
Pocketpair said the plaintiffs sought an injunction against Palworld and 5 million yen plus late-payment damages from each defendant—5 million yen payable to Nintendo and 5 million yen to The Pokémon Company. Read Pocketpair’s statement.
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Those Japanese patent numbers are not the same as U.S. Patent No. 12,403,397. Patent rights are territorial, and a U.S. patent does not automatically apply in Japan. The later U.S. grant therefore cannot be treated as a newly revealed patent number from the original Japanese complaint.
Key dates put the stories in context
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| August 16, 2022 | Priority date listed for the U.S. patent family. |
| March 1, 2023 | U.S. application filed. |
| January 19, 2024 | Palworld released, according to Pocketpair. |
| February 22, 2024 | U.S. application published as US20240058701A1. |
| September 18, 2024 | Japanese case filed, according to the reported court timeline. |
| September 19, 2024 | Nintendo publicly announced the lawsuit. |
| November 8, 2024 | Pocketpair identified the three Japanese patents publicly. |
| September 2, 2025 | U.S. Patent No. 12,403,397 granted and published. |
| 2026, reported by April | Coverage described a non-final USPTO rejection during reexamination. |
The 2022 priority date predates Palworld’s January 2024 release. That timing does not prove infringement or validity, but it does show that the U.S. application was not first filed after the game became public.
What the 2026 U.S. reexamination report means
As of the August 16, 2026 cutoff, reporting said the USPTO issued a non-final rejection involving the patent’s controversial summoning-and-battle claims. Reports described obviousness or prior-art concerns. PC Gamer’s report and Nintendo Life’s report should not be read as a final agency decision unless and until the USPTO record says so.
A non-final rejection is a procedural step. The patent was granted; the reexamination can lead to claims being amended, cancelled, or maintained, and further review may be available. “The patent was permanently revoked” and “the patent never existed” are both stronger than the reported posture supports.
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The U.S. proceeding also does not decide the validity of the Japanese patents in the Pocketpair case. Each jurisdiction applies its own law to its own patent rights.
Why prior art matters without proving invalidity by itself
U.S. patent claims must meet requirements including novelty and non-obviousness. Earlier games, patents, publications, and other public materials can be relevant prior art, depending on their dates, disclosures, jurisdiction, and the legal test applied.
That does not mean that finding an older game with a vaguely similar mechanic automatically invalidates the claim. The relevant question is whether the prior art discloses or makes obvious the claimed combination of player and sub-character roles, designated locations, inputs, enemy detection, and specified battle or movement states. The reported reexamination concerns are attributed to that proceeding; they are not a final independent ruling that every similar game defeats the patent.
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Patent protection
A patent can provide potential rights against conduct that falls within valid, enforceable claims, subject to jurisdiction, defenses, and other legal requirements. It does not confer ownership of a genre or of an abstract gameplay idea.
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Other intellectual-property rights
- Copyright can protect expressive elements such as artwork, character expression, audiovisual presentation, and code, but not a bare gameplay concept.
- Trademark protects source-identifying names, logos, and branding.
- Trade secret protection concerns qualifying confidential information.
The 2024 Nintendo-Pocketpair announcement was expressly framed as a patent-infringement action. It should not be treated as proof that copyright, trademark, and patent claims are interchangeable.
What players and developers should conclude
For players
There is no blanket ban on games featuring summoned creatures, collectible allies, or battles between characters. The patent’s existence does not make an entire genre legally unavailable.
For developers
Broad gameplay similarity is not the only issue. Exact implementation details, claim language, jurisdiction, patent status, and potential defenses can matter. A media summary cannot substitute for a claim chart and advice from qualified patent counsel before launch or a major feature change.
Bottom line
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company did not patent the abstract idea of “summoning characters and making them battle.” They did obtain a specific U.S. patent covering a more detailed sequence involving a player character, a summoned sub-character, designated locations, enemy detection, and defined battle or movement behavior. That U.S. patent was separate from the three Japanese patents Pocketpair identified in the 2024 Palworld lawsuit, and its reported 2026 non-final reexamination rejection is not the same as a final cancellation.
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