Last September, Nintendo was granted a US patent which covered the action of summoning another character and making them battle on the player's behalf.
Two months later USPTO director John A Squires personally ordered a re-examination of the patent – the first time since 2012 that a USPTO director had personally done so without another company officially getting involved – citing previous patents which might have made it invalid.
Now, as reported by Games Fray, the USPTO has decided to 'reject' all 26 claims made in the patent, meaning it has now been revoked.
This is a non-final decision – Nintendo how has two months to respond, or longer if it asks for an extension, and there can be an appeal made to the Federal Circuit if it doesn't agree with the decision.
When ordering the re-examination of the patent, Squires specifically focused on the patent's claim to having a sub-character fight alongside you with the option to make them fight either automatically or via manual control.
In his order, Squires said he had "determined that substantial new questions of patentability have arisen" based on the publications of two previous patents, named as Yabe and Taura.
The Yabe patent was granted in 2002 to Konami, and refers to a sub-character fighting alongside the player either automatically or manually, while the Taura patent was granted in 2020 to Nintendo itself, and also refers to a sub-character who battles alongside the player.
The USPTO's decision to reject the patent also cites two more previous patents – another patent named Motokura which was granted to Nintendo in 2022, and a patent called Shimomoto which was granted in 2020 to Bandai Namco.
نقاط مختصرة:
- بسبتمبر الماضي نينتندو حصلت على براءة اختراع لاستدعاء الشخصيات لتقاتل بالنيابة عنك ببوكيمون، فقط ليستخدموها بالقضية ضد Palworld
- بعد شهرين، رئيس مكتب براءات الاختراع أمر بإعادة فحص براءة الاختراع بشكل شخصي، لأول مرة يعمل كذا منذ 2012 بدون تدخل الشركات
- الآن، تم رفض كل الـ 26 إدعاء اللي كانوا مذكورين ببراءة الاختراع، مما يعني سحبها.
- القرار ما زال غير نهائي، نينتندو عندها مدة شهرين للرد، او اكثر اذا طلبت تمديد المهلة
- في بيان الرفض، ذكر رئيس المكتب ان هناك براءات اختراعات سابقة مشابهة لنفس الميكانكيات، واحد منهم براءة اختراع Yaba وتم تقديمها في 2002 لصالح كونامي، وآخر في 2020 لنينتندو نفسها، أيضا هناك واحدة أخرى لنينتندو في 2022 وواحدة قبلها في 2020 لبانداي نامكو