Nintendo’s Pokémon Summoning Patent Has Been Rejected — For Now

You may remember late last year there was something of a stink regarding a then-recent Nintendo patent application that had come to light.

This application sought to patent an in-game character summoning a secondary character to aid them in battles. Kinda like a Pokemon trainer subbing in a new Pokemon to help during a brawl.

Originally submitted back in 2023, the patent was, to some surprise, approved in September of 2025. However, the US Patent office soon announced they would actually be pressing pause and reviewing their decision — a notably rare act.

Well, now they’ve made a fresh verdict, and have rejected the patent due to “two or three prior art references” — I’m sure you and I could think of several dozen others…

Nintendo can actually appeal this decision, so this isn’t the end of the story.

These patents and related action — including a failed attempt to patent a capture mechanic — sit alongside the ongoing Palworld drama and litigation.

Things like Palworld, for whatever merit they may have, are clearly a fairly brash facsimile of what Pokemon has long established — however, Nintendo choosing to fight these replicas on game mechanics has always felt like the wrong approach. I’m no legal expert, but patenting such tried and tested gameplay mechanics some thirty years into the franchise feels like a complete dead end. There’s got to be a better way to tackle such flagrant imitators?

Games Fray has an excellent report on this if you’d like to dig into more of the detail — including smart legal know-how on how we got here.