Nintendo vs Palworld: US also re-examines patent 397

The thorny legal battle continues to entangle, pitting on one side the software house Pocket Pair and its title Palworld, dubbed by many as "Pokémon with guns", and on the other, Nintendo's aggressive legal department, which supports The Pokémon Company in a patent-based lawsuit.

Only a few days ago, we reported how the house of Mario suffered a major setback in this regard from the Japanese patent authority, which rejected two out of three documents that had been produced to support the prosecution's argument.

Now we receive news of a further weakening of Nintendo's accusatory case, and this time from the United States: John A. Squires, the new director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office appointed by President Donald Trump and in office since last September, has in fact ordered a re-examination of the so-called patent 397 - or to be precise, n° 12,403,397 - which is the one in which Nintendo claims ownership of a specific combination of mechanics that allow players to capture monsters and then summon them into battle alongside the protagonist in an open-world video game.

Note: the description we have given of the patent in question is strictly summarized! In reality, the document is quite substantial - we are talking about 45 pages of legalese and bureaucratic jargon - and whether Nintendo's deposition is legitimate or not is becoming the subject of important study. In this regard, we can point you to an interesting analysis and discussion on Reddit.

That said, a request for re-examination obviously does not imply an automatic rejection, but there will certainly be some perplexities that Nintendo will be called upon to address: its lawyers now have two months to reply, and then we will see...