USPTO Deals Nintendo a Major Blow as Controversial Character Summoning Patent Is Rejected in Reexamination
Nintendo’s patent campaign against Pocketpair has just taken a major hit in the United States, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejecting all 26 claims of one of the company’s most controversial gameplay patents during reexamination. The patent at issue, U.S. Patent No. 12,403,397, covered a mechanic broadly described as summoning a sub character and having it fight in one of two modes. According to the latest reporting from Games Fray, the USPTO examiner found the claims obvious in light of earlier prior art, which means the patent has been rejected in a non final office action rather than fully and permanently invalidated at this stage.
That distinction is important. This is a serious setback for Nintendo, but it is not yet the final end of the road. Games Fray reports that Nintendo now has 2 months to respond, and could also seek an extension or continue fighting through further appeal channels. In other words, the patent has not simply vanished overnight beyond recovery, but the burden is now very much on Nintendo to persuade the USPTO that these claims should survive.
What makes this development especially notable is how unusual the path has been from the beginning. Back on November 3, 2025, USPTO Director John A. Squires personally ordered reexamination of this patent, a step the office itself publicly confirmed. That kind of director initiated reexamination is rare, and it immediately signaled that the patent’s approval had drawn more scrutiny than a typical game related filing.
The controversy around this patent was never just about legal procedure. It became a flashpoint because many observers felt the claimed mechanics were too broad and too familiar to players across multiple games and genres. Reporting around the rejection indicates the examiner relied on earlier patent publications, including some tied to Nintendo’s own prior filings, to argue that the supposed invention was obvious. That is a particularly damaging outcome for Nintendo’s position, because it suggests the office now sees the patent as covering concepts that were not sufficiently novel to deserve protection in the first place.
This matters far beyond one patent number. Nintendo’s lawsuit against Pocketpair has attracted enormous attention because many players initially assumed the dispute would revolve around copyright or creature design similarities. Instead, the legal fight leaned heavily on patents tied to gameplay systems. Pocketpair has already made changes to Palworld during the broader dispute, so even a non final rejection here could influence how the case is perceived going forward, especially if Nintendo’s more aggressive patent strategy starts looking less secure than it did a few months ago.
From an industry perspective, this is one of the clearest reminders yet that trying to lock down broad gameplay interactions through patents remains a risky and controversial strategy. Nintendo may still keep pressing, and it is far too early to write the company off legally. But right now, the momentum on this particular patent issue has clearly shifted against it. If the rejection holds, it would weaken one of the more contentious legal tools Nintendo appeared to be sharpening in its battle with Pocketpair.
For now, the bigger takeaway is simple. Nintendo has not lost the entire war, but it has unquestionably lost an important round, and one that cuts directly into a patent many critics argued should never have been approved in the first place.
What do you think, should broad gameplay systems like summoning and auto battling ever be protected this aggressively, or is the USPTO right to push back here?
