Nintendo now has a US patent on summoning characters and making them battle for you

Nintendo has successfully acquired a US patent on a gameplay mechanic used in other games.

As spotted by Games Fray, Nintendo was granted a patent last week which covers the action of summoning another character and making them battle on the player’s behalf.

Specifically, the patent describes a situation where:

• A console or other system is being used to run a video game from storage
• The player controls a character in a “virtual space”
• The player can perform an input command to make a “sub character” appear (i.e. summon another character)
• If there’s an enemy where the sub character appears, the player can control a battle between the sub character and the enemy
• If there’s no enemy where the sub character appears, the sub character will automatically move around
• The player can move the sub character to a different location on the field, and if an enemy is there they can control a battle between the sub character and the enemy

The most obvious example of this patent in action is a Pokémon game, where a player can summon Pokémon and use them to battle other Pokémon on their behalf.

It could theoretically be interpreted to cover a number of other games, however. Another example could be Nintendo’s Pikmin series, where players summon Pikmin (by either uprooting them or choosing them from the player’s ship) and moving them to different locations, triggering fights if they hit an enemy.

There are already concerns online that Nintendo’s new patent could lead to a number of lawsuits in which it sues any other company that tries to implement a summoning mechanic in its game, putting future titles in series like Persona at risk.

However, whereas trademark law says that a company could lose its trademark if it doesn’t challenge any infringements, this isn’t the case with patents. While Nintendo has patented this mechanic, it can choose not to pursue any other company that decides to use it, and only do so when it feels its own IP is being threatened.

This was the case with Palworld, which has seen accusations of plagiarising from the Pokémon games ever since its release in early 2024.

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair in Japan last year, alleging that Palworld infringes on three patents that are related to monster catching gameplay, including summoning Pals by throwing Pal Spheres, and using Pals as vehicles like gliders.