These are the prior art patents cited for the summoning patent reexamination:
- Konami 2002 (images 1-2; Hunter x Hunter)
- Nintendo 2019 (images 3-4; Astral Chain)
Are they similar enough to the Pokémon patent to invalidate it? I’ll let you read them and judge for yourself. Games Fray/Florian Mueller, however, left these out of their misleading report to prevent readers from having reasonable doubts or even asking:
“Does Konami own the summoning mechanic since 2002?”
It’d puncture the misinformation that they’ve been cultivating—Nintendo was patenting generic game mechanics. Any gamers reading the patents above will quickly catch on that they cover very specific executions, not generic mechanics. Games Fray’s absurd broad ownership claim is just scaremongering intended to instigate.
[Sidebar 1] Another clear example is the following Sony 2025 patent for on-screen controller overlay (image below). No one would believe that it meant owning something so basic.
[Sidebar 2] On the macro level, Sony’s video game patent portfolio is ~2.8x of Nintendo’s (image below), betraying the myth that Nintendo is doing anything extraordinary.
So why does the USPTO Director want to reexamine the Pokémon patent?
According to rule 37 CFR 1.520, if relevant patents are “discovered by” or “brought to the Director’s attention”, they may initiate an reexamination. Do you believe that Director Squires, a Trump appointee and ex Goldman Sachs lawyer, “discovered” a 2002 Konami patent by himself?
The US law does not require Squires to disclose who “brought [it to his] attention”, so he didn’t. Curiously, on 2025-10-22 a Pokémon patent division (JP2024059945) was temporarily rejected in Japan also due to a 3rd party submission of prior art. Does anyone think that these aren’t coordinated?
Mueller didn’t offer any impartial analyses of the above, but congratulated himself on inciting the “outrage” that (according to him) led to this reexamination, essentially an admission of astroturfing. If this isn’t a mask-off moment, I don’t know what is.
I don’t play either Pokémon or Palworld, and couldn’t care less about who wins the lawsuit. What really gets my goat is the credulity of many VG news outlets (e.g., GamesIndustry.biz) that willingly or willfully signal boosted a flagrant disinformation campaign.
It boggles the mind how any professional reporters could look at Mueller’s inflammatory languages and history of “consulting” (i.e., paid to blog) for companies embroiled in lawsuits without raising any questions.
[Originally posted on 2025-11-14 Pacific Time]
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