A new wrinkle has emerged concerning Nintendo’s patents that could impact the company’s recent efforts to claim ownership over game mechanics involving the summoning of characters during battle.
John Squires, the relatively new director of the US Patent Office (USPTO) appointed during the Trump administration, has ordered a reexamination of Nintendo’s latest patent. This patent details the mechanic of “summoning a subcharacter and letting it fight in one of two battle modes.” Squires cited previous patents that may render Nintendo’s more recent patent invalid.
The reexamination, reported by GamesFray, highlights concerns over earlier patents that potentially challenge Nintendo’s claims. Notably, a 2002 patent codenamed “Yabe,” granted to Konami, describes a character fighting alongside the player in both automatic and manual modes. Additionally, Nintendo itself was granted the “Taura” patent in 2020, which also references sub-characters battling alongside a player’s character.
John Squires pointed out that “each of Yabe and Taura teaches a player being allowed to perform a battle in a manual mode and in a simpler, automatic mode.” He further explained that “a reasonable examiner would consider each of Yabe and Taura to be important in deciding whether the claims are patentable.”
Concluding his remarks, Squires stated that “each raises a substantial new question of patentability,” leading to the decision for the patent’s reexamination.
This development could have significant implications for Nintendo’s approach to securing intellectual property rights around game mechanics, especially those centered on companion or sub-character battle features.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146667/nintendo-summon-subcharacter-patent-examination-john-squires