Nintendo’s ongoing legal battle with Palworld developer Pocketpair has taken another blow after the head of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ordered a rare re-examination of one of the company’s patents.
According to GamesFray, USPTO Director John A. Squires personally intervened on November 3, 2025, to reopen US Patent No. 12,403,397, which covers a system allowing a player to “summon a sub-character and let it fight in one of two modes.”
The order, formally titled a Director-Initiated Ex Parte Reexamination, cites two earlier patents, one filed by Konami in 2002 and another by Nintendo itself in 2019, that describe nearly identical features.
Rare step raises questions about Nintendo’s broader patent claims
The USPTO’s decision marks the first director-initiated re-examination in over a decade, signaling how controversial the patent’s approval had become. While the review does not automatically revoke the patent, it opens the door for its cancellation if the cited prior art is deemed to invalidate its core claims.
Nintendo has two months to respond to the order, but the process could result in the loss of all independent claims of the patent, specifically claims 1, 13, 25, and 26, which would render the rest unenforceable. Legal analysts told GamesFray that the outcome appears “highly likely” to end in revocation, given that both cited references already describe the same manual and automatic battle mechanics.
Another setback following Japan patent rejection
The development comes just a week after Japan’s Patent Office rejected one of Nintendo’s related applications, ruling that its creature-capture system lacked originality. That Japanese filing is part of the same patent family as the ones being used in Nintendo and The Pokemon Company’s ongoing lawsuit against Pocketpair in Tokyo District Court.
While the US and Japanese cases are separate, both decisions challenge the originality of the patent family underpinning Nintendo’s claims. The Tokyo lawsuit, filed in September 2024, alleges Palworld infringes multiple Nintendo patents related to capturing and battling creatures. Proceedings are expected to continue into 2026 under presiding judge Motoyuki Nakashima.
What’s next for Nintendo?
Nintendo can still defend the patent through amendment or appeal, but a revocation would further weaken its international legal strategy. For Pocketpair, the USPTO’s move represents another small but significant victory in an increasingly complex global dispute.
For now, the director-ordered review adds to growing doubts about the strength of Nintendo’s case.
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