A new development has emerged concerning Nintendo’s patents that could impact the company’s recent attempts to claim ownership over certain game mechanics—specifically, the summoning of a sub-character to fight alongside the player in battle.
John Squires, the relatively new director of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) appointed during the Trump administration, has ordered a reexamination of Nintendo’s latest patent. This patent details a system where a player summons a sub-character to fight in one of two battle modes. However, Squires’ directive cites earlier patents that may challenge the validity of Nintendo’s recent filing.
According to a report by GamesFray, which covered the reexamination order and the related patents, Squires expressed concerns that prior patents might render Nintendo’s newer patent invalid. Notably, a 2002 patent known by the codename “Yabe,” granted to Konami, describes a character fighting alongside the player both automatically and manually.
Additionally, Nintendo itself was granted a patent in 2020, referred to as “Taura,” which also involves sub-characters battling alongside the main character. Both the Yabe and Taura patents describe gameplay mechanics where a sub-character assists in battle, controlled either automatically or manually.
John Squires highlighted 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 noted that “a reasonable examiner would consider each of Yabe and Taura to be important in deciding whether the claims are patentable.”
Squires concluded that these prior patents “raise a substantial new question of patentability,” prompting the USPTO to reconsider Nintendo’s patent claims carefully.
This reexamination could have significant implications for Nintendo’s recent patent strategy, particularly in the evolving landscape of intellectual property rights related to game mechanics.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146667/nintendo-summon-subcharacter-patent-examination-john-squires