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Baldur’s Gate
Baldur’s Gate 3 publishing lead says patents like the controversial ones Nintendo has secured amid its Palworld lawsuit “are too often used in bad faith”

Survival Games
As the Palworld lawsuit rumbles on, Nintendo claims two new patents that could change the way non-Pokemon creature collectors work for good

Nintendo has more than Palworld to deal with – IP expert says Genshin Impact dev’s new Pokemon-style game “clearly infringes” on a hard-to-avoid patent Pocketpair is accused of infringing

Survival Games
As Palworld update soars, IP expert says “weird” new moves from Nintendo in ongoing lawsuit read like a “desperate attempt to win by doing something odd”

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With the Palworld lawsuit rumbling on in the background, the Nintendo Switch welcomes “Palland” – a survival game that looks a whole lot like Pocketpair’s creature collector

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Even Pokemon’s former chief legal officer thinks Nintendo’s controversial new patent is unenforceable: “I wish Nintendo and Pokemon good luck”

Issy van der Velde

11 September 2025

When is broad too broad?

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

Nintendo is an infamously litigious company, one that aggressively defends its intellectual property. But, has its latest patent gone too far? It covers a player’s ability to summon a character to fight for them, and some lawyers have weighed in on the situation.

The specific language of the patent is tricky to parse, but essentially, if a game has a character that can move around and summon a “sub character” to fight against other characters, that game could be infringing on Nintendo’s IP. If you think that sounds far too broad, you’re not alone.
“I have no earthly idea how the [patent] Examiner could, in good faith, allow this application so quickly,” video game patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon says to our friends over at PC Gamer. “This allowance should not have happened, full stop.”

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Baldur’s Gate 3 publishing lead says patents like the controversial ones Nintendo has secured amid its Palworld lawsuit “are too often used in bad faith”

As the Palworld lawsuit rumbles on, Nintendo claims two new patents that could change the way non-Pokemon creature collectors work for good

Nintendo has more than Palworld to deal with – IP expert says Genshin Impact dev’s new Pokemon-style game “clearly infringes” on a hard-to-avoid patent Pocketpair is accused of infringing

After the first application for the patent was deemed too similar to ones held by Tencent and Xbox, the United States Patent and Trademark Office and Nintendo had an interview. Nintendo made some changes, and the patent was then granted. Sigmon seems to believe the USPTO was out of its depth.

(Image credit: The Pokemon Company)
“This seems like a situation where the USPTO essentially gave up and just allowed the case, assuming that the claims were narrow or specific enough to be new without evaluating them too closely,” he says. “I strongly disagree with this result: In my view, these claims were in no way allowable.”
Is a patent that seems this broad even enforceable? “I wish Nintendo and Pokemon good luck when the first other developer just entirely ignores this patent and, if those companies sue that developer, the developer shows decades of prior art,” former chief legal officer at The Pokemon Company Don McGowan says to Eurogamer.
Essentially, when other companies show their games have had similar mechanics for years, Nintendo’s patent likely won’t hold up in court. Still, the patent itself “may be enough to deter investment in and creation of competitors,” games industry lawyer Richard Hoeg explains to Eurogamer. “That is, if Nintendo looks like it could pounce, that may be enough. No actual pouncing required.”

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Hoeg goes on to explain that fighting the patent in court could actually risk narrowing it, and says “Nintendo likely knows it ‘got away with one'” and may simply prefer to have it as a passive deterrent rather than a tool to actively use.
Baldur’s Gate 3 publishing lead Michael “Cromwelp” Douse seems to be thinking the same thing, writing, “These types of patents are too often used in bad faith.”
Hoeg echoes Sigmon’s concerns over the USPTO itself, saying, “Law and technology are often strange bedfellows, and in my opinion the patent office has appeared out of its depth on evaluating video games for quite some time. It may be time for reform there.”
What do you think?
In the meantime, check out the best games like Pokemon you can play today. I wonder if Nintendo will be going after any of them with its new patent?

See more Nintendo Switch 2 News

Nintendo Switch 2

Issy van der Velde

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Contributor

I’m Issy, a freelancer who you’ll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I’ve always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you’ll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I’m currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 publishing lead says patents like the controversial ones Nintendo has secured amid its Palworld lawsuit “are too often used in bad faith”

As the Palworld lawsuit rumbles on, Nintendo claims two new patents that could change the way non-Pokemon creature collectors work for good

Nintendo has more than Palworld to deal with – IP expert says Genshin Impact dev’s new Pokemon-style game “clearly infringes” on a hard-to-avoid patent Pocketpair is accused of infringing

As Palworld update soars, IP expert says “weird” new moves from Nintendo in ongoing lawsuit read like a “desperate attempt to win by doing something odd”

With the Palworld lawsuit rumbling on in the background, the Nintendo Switch welcomes “Palland” – a survival game that looks a whole lot like Pocketpair’s creature collector

There’s nothing quite like fishing in the virtual waters of your favorite video games, and this Nintendo patent could hint at the future of this serene hobby

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