The legal battle between Palworld and Nintendo has recently reached a new peak. Two registered patents were approved and are causing a stir in the video game world. A lawyer now provides his assessment and comes to a clear conclusion.
What kind of patent is it? On MeinMMO, we have reported about two new patents, which were filed and granted by Nintendo at the US Patent Office.
Particularly, patent No. 12.403.397 is causing a stir. It relates to a central gameplay mechanic, namely summoning a character that fights for the player. In other words: A mechanic that occurs in Palworld but also in numerous other titles.
It remains uncertain whether Nintendo will also take other developers to court in the future. A US patent attorney has looked into the case and explains why he finds the decision of the patent authorities questionable.
“An embarrassing failure of the US patent system”
What does the lawyer say? Kirk Sigmon is a patent attorney and has been dealing with the legal dispute between Palworld and Nintendo for quite some time.
He follows the outraged reactions that the recent ruling has provoked – for example, among users on Reddit. Sigmon agrees with the outcry and calls the decision in an interview with PC Gamer “an embarrassing failure of the US patent system.”
Notably to the lawyer is that the two submitted patents were approved almost without resistance.
“This is a very unusual event. Most claims are rejected at least once. This seems to be a situation where the USPTO (US Patent Office, note from the editor) basically gave up and just allowed the case, assuming the claims were close enough or specific enough to be new without examining them too closely.”
Kirk Sigmon
According to the lawyer, it has not been explained why the patents were approved at all. This is “highly unusual” and raises “numerous warning signals.” None of the patents should have been granted. Sigmon sees a significant mistake on the part of the patent office and fears that many developers will now have to deal with uncertainties.
The lawyer draws his conclusion: “This approval should not have happened. Period.”
What do the players think? On Reddit, the topic is heatedly discussed. After all, it’s not just the developers who are affected by the mentioned gameplay mechanics. Players would also suffer if certain fundamental systems could no longer be used by all developers.
- Miserable_Speed5474 wants to get involved in this case and writes: “These patents are a significant failure of US patent law and should be challenged immediately. I am currently looking into how I can contact a group, a representative, and a delegate to hopefully enforce some form of action.”
- “There are clearly other examples of other games that have already done exactly the same, and Nintendo/TPC literally had 30 years to do this and are only doing it now? Have they gone totally crazy?” wonders B19F00T.
- “They throw everything that comes to mind against the wall, see what sticks, and then use that against Palworld,” suspects the user k3lz0.
- “There are a lot of patents that go through even though they shouldn’t. That’s not as unusual as you portray it,” says the user CombatMuffin.
It remains to be seen how the Palworld developers at Pocketpair will react to the new development. In the past, the studio modified certain aspects of the game that would have been affected by granted patents.
In this new case, it becomes significantly more difficult, as summoning monsters and fighting with them is an essential part of the game. What do you think about this? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments. Pocketpair has already defended itself in the past: In the legal dispute with Nintendo, the company behind Palworld defends itself against patents regarding Pokémon
