A new wrinkle has emerged concerning Nintendo’s patents that could impact the company’s recent attempts to claim ownership over certain game mechanics—specifically, the mechanic where a player summons another character to fight alongside them in battle.
John Squires, the relatively new USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) director appointed during the Trump administration, has ordered a reexamination of Nintendo’s latest patent. This patent details the concept of “summoning a subcharacter and letting it fight in one of two battle modes.” Squires’ order cites earlier patents that may challenge the validity of Nintendo’s more recent claim.
This development was reported by GamesFray, which delved into the details of the reexamination and highlighted the relevant prior patents involved. Notably, Squires pointed to concerns that earlier patents could invalidate Nintendo’s latest patent filing.
One significant prior patent is the 2002 “Yabe” patent granted to Konami. This patent describes a character fighting alongside the player with options for both automatic and manual control. Additionally, Nintendo’s own 2020 “Taura” patent also references sub-characters battling alongside the main player character.
To clarify, the Yabe patent granted to Konami in 2002 details a sub-character fighting alongside the player either automatically or manually. Similarly, the Taura patent granted to Nintendo in 2020 addresses a sub-character who battles alongside the player.
In his reexamination order, John Squires stated, “Each of Yabe and Taura teaches a player being allowed to perform a battle in a manual mode and in a simpler, automatic mode. A reasonable examiner would consider each of Yabe and Taura to be important in deciding whether the claims are patentable.” He further concluded that “each raises a substantial new question of patentability,” which calls into question the enforceability of Nintendo’s recent patent claims.
This reexamination signals ongoing challenges in the gaming industry around patenting gameplay mechanics, especially when earlier innovations may overlap with new claims. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo and the USPTO proceed with this case in the coming months.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146667/nintendo-summon-subcharacter-patent-examination-john-squires
