Nintendo’s Pokémon patent for summoning characters and letting them fight for you has been rejected by the USPTO on a non-final basis.
The Nintendo and Palworld lawsuit has been ongoing for a long time, and the latest updates on the case indicate that Nintendo’s patents are under review. In October 2025, we saw an anti-Palworld patent rejected in Japan, and now the patent on summoning characters and letting them fight is out of reexamination and has been rejected.
Another Nintendo Patent Rejected in Palworld Lawsuit
A report by Gamesfray reveals that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has rejected Nintendo’s U.S. Patent No. 12,403,397 on a non-final basis. This comes after the reexamination process, following Nintendo’s missed deadline for the response. USPTO reached this conclusion based on a combination of several prior art references, one of which was Nintendo’s own 2019 patent.
The first prior art reference, Taura, was filed in 2019 and covers most of what the “summon-and-fight-in-1-of-2-modes” patent is about. This patent can be combined with Yabe and Motokura, thereby invalidating claims 1, 2, 5-7, 10-14, 17-19, and 22-26. The remaining 8 claims are covered by a 2020 patent by Bandai Namco and Shimomoto.
However, readers should note that the rejection is non-final, with Nintendo having two months to appeal and also an option to extend the period.
In other news, a new Nintendo patent may hint that DS titles are making their way to the Nintendo Switch. Additionally, the console maker accounts for over 50% of console sales in the UK. Here are more details. What are your thoughts on Nintendo’s Pokémon-summoning-and-fighting patent being rejected? Leave your thoughts down in the comments, and join the official Insider Gaming Discord server.
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