"This Nintendo patent was apparently granted without a patent examiner looking at a single game": IP expert says concerns "hundreds of games" could be affected by Pokemon summoning patent granted amid Palworld lawsuit are "valid"

Pokemon anime episode 1 Ash Ketchum watching nervously.

Vetting the reported dangers of a US patent recently granted to Nintendo regarding game and summoning mechanics tied up in Pokemon, IP expert and games industry veteran Florian Mueller reckons the overbroad patent was approved almost entirely uncritically precisely because no other games were evaluated by the examiner.

Legal and game experts have questioned how this patent, US 12,403,397, which presents potential conflicts with countless games where a player character summons the described "sub characters" in battle, was approved when so many games that predate it show that such mechanics are not uncommon. Mueller, reviewing the examiner's references and searches alongside Nintendo's own disclosures (which point to a page on the Pokemon website), suggests those games were never even considered.