Nintendo and The Pokemon Company's controversial summoning patent is under scrutiny by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as its director has ordered a rare re-examination of its validity in a move one IP expert believes "further undermines the credibility" of the companies' legal battle against Palworld.
The patent in question – patent number 12,403,397 – came into the spotlight back in September, as it appeared to describe the idea of summoning a character to fight in battle. More specifically, it refers to "sub characters," and in basic terms describes a system that allows said sub characters to fight either manually or automatically, a bit like in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (which lets you send your Pokemon out onto the field to attack wild foes independently, and in a different way to you initiating a turn-based fight).
