Amidst its ongoing Japanese patent lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair, Nintendo thoroughly stirred the legal pot on this side of the Pacific when news broke in September 2025 that the United States Patent and Trademark Office had granted the publisher US patent 12,403,397—a patent describing a system for battling summoned characters.
Despite concerns about how such patents could be weaponized, the USPTO approved the '397 patent with shockingly little pushback, drawing outcry from both players and legal experts—experts like videogame patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon, who called the patent's approval "an embarrassing failure of the US patent system." The USPTO now seems to agree, as it issued a nonfinal decision last week rejecting all of the '397 patent's claims, effectively declaring its intent to revoke the patent (via GamesFray). Nintendo will, however, be able to argue against the decision.
