As first noted by Games Fray last week, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company were granted a US patent earlier this month involving summoning characters and making them battle. Headlines popped up with similarly vague language as concern spread on social media: That’s a thing in tons of games! Can they do that? Is that even allowed?
Well, no, because that’s not exactly what they patented. And what they did patent might not stand up to any hypothetical challenges in court.
The patent in question, US Patent No. 12,403,397, was filed in March 2023. It does involve summoning and battle mechanics, but it’s more specific than that: The claims describ …
Read the full story at The Verge.