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Nintendo has never been shy about using the legal system as a weapon against piracy and competitors alike, so it isn’t surprising that they have been locked in a legal battle with Palworld’s developer, Pocketpair, for over a year now over the similarities with Pokémon. However, Nintendo has recently been awarded a patent that could have major implications for other games out there – depending on how broadly it is enforced.

We’ll be honest; patent law is tough to read at the best of times, but here is our understanding of the patent that Nintendo and Pokémon Company have been awarded by the US Patent Office. It grants them a patent for any video game mechanic that hits all the following criteria:

1. Is a video game
2. Allows player characters to move around a virtual field
3. Allows player characters to summon sub-characters to fight an enemy for them
4. Allows player characters to summon sub-characters to move around a virtual field to find something to fight

This is, obviously, a simplification of the incredibly complex language used in the patent. It is pretty broad and would conceivably include almost any video game, from direct Pokémon competitors like Digimon to games like Elden Ring that have a summon mechanic. However, there is a catch; the patent includes diagrams and flow charts that mention balls that are used to store and summon the sub-characters. With this key feature, it doesn't look like games like Elden Ring would be in danger of violating Nintendo's patent.

The diagrams in the patent suggest that the inclusion of the spherical storage and delivery system (ie, Poke Balls) to summon the sub-characters (Pokémon) is the key here, as it narrows the patent’s scope significantly. Of all the obvious Pokémon competitors, only Palworld used that exact mechanic described above, but even they have since patched the Poké Ball-inspired Pal Sphere out of their game earlier this year.

As it stands, the patent in question appears to be focused heavily on the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet mechanics. However, Nintendo is not known for using restraint in its approach to litigation, so we will have to wait and see how broadly they try to enforce it.

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