Nintendo’s latest patent ‘will make games worse,’ says video game IP lawyer

Nintendo was recently awarded a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that covers the game mechanic of summoning a sub-character into a game. It’s a little more nuanced than that, but that’s the overall gist of it.

The patent itself, specifically US Patent No. 12,403,397, was filed in March 2023 and was just awarded earlier this month on September 2, 2025.