In the midst of the ongoing lawsuit concerning PalWorld and developer Pocketpair, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have recently secured a new patent that complicates the situation further.

To provide context, The Pokémon Company and Palworld’s creator Pocketpair have been embroiled in a legal dispute for several months, with Pokémon claiming that Palworld violates fundamental mechanics of Pokémon games, such as using Poké Balls and traversing the world on monsters. The most recent update (prior to today) in the lawsuit indicates that Pocketpair plans to “continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings.”

Nonetheless, it seems that The Pokémon Company has been granted the US Patent that covers essential Pokémon game mechanics. U.S. Patent No. 12,403,397 (discovered and outlined by Games Fray) specifies that Pokémon now holds the patent rights to summoning “sub-characters” and engaging them in a battle. The precise text of the patent states, “controlling a battle between the sub character and the enemy character by a second mode in which the battle automatically proceeds.” This could imply that sub-characters (in this instance, Pokémon) can initiate combat with one another, or it might define the battle system in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

The language of the patent is notably ambiguous, as though it intends to cover the entire genre and potentially expose previously released games (like Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei series) to claims of patent infringement. Florian Mueller, a patent analyst at Games Fray, called it “shocking,” stating, “The mere fact that the patent has been granted is detrimental for the video game industry.”

The patent has also sparked outrage among fans. Frustrated players have taken to Reddit to express their discontent with the US Patent. In a thread titled “Last week, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company received a U.S. patent on summoning a character and letting it fight another,” on r/Games, numerous users have shared their views on the implications of Nintendo and The Pokémon Company receiving such a broadly applicable patent.

One particularly provocative commenter remarked, “At this point let them patent 3D platformers and games where you can buy items. Absolutely insane abuse of the awful United States patent system,” while other fans have conveyed similar concerns in the thread. Although the patent delineates the specific actions a game must undertake to possibly infringe upon the patent holder’s rights (which resembles the legal jargon interpretation of Pokémon Legends: Arceus and the Pokémon Legends: Z-A battle system), fans (and patent analysts) are apprehensive about the implications this could have for the gaming industry overall.

While this patent has been approved, its impact on gaming and the ongoing Pocketpair lawsuit continues to be uncertain.