The United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected a patent in Nintendo involving the role of caller and helper in combat. According to Gomes Fray, the decision was “based on a combination of existing technical literature in the form of two or three publicly available United States patent applications”. The dismissal by the United States Patent and Trademark Office was not final. Nintendo has two months to respond and may choose to defer the appeal.
Nintendo submitted this “call patent” in March 2023. The patent was granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in September 2025, but was re-examined in November.
In September 2024, Nintendo and Bocoma filed a lawsuit in Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, the developer of the phantom Paru, for violation of “multiple patent rights”. Nintendo stated that the “prohibited tort and damages” were sought on the grounds that the game Paro, a phantom game developed and published by the defendant, violated numerous patent rights. “Nen Heaven will continue to take the necessary action to protect its intellectual property rights, including the Nintendo brand itself, against any infringement of its intellectual property rights.” Pocketpair confirmed the suit and indicated that it would initiate legal proceedings and investigate allegations of patent infringement. It also stated that it was not informed of the specific patent rights it had violated.
In September 2025, Pocketpair announced that, although the proceedings were still ongoing, Pharaoh would end its first experience and launch an official edition in 2026. The patent involved in the proceedings included the capture and release of monsters and the cycling system. Last May, Pocketpair modified the way users glide in the game and in November 2024 removed the function of calling Palu by throwing “Paru ball”. Pocketpair, updated in May, said: “We are still mired in lengthy legal proceedings for patent infringement. We continue to challenge these allegations and claim that the relevant patent is invalid. However, in order to avoid interference in the development and distribution of the phantom Paru, we had to make certain compromises. We know that this will disappoint many people, as we do, but we want fans to understand that these changes are necessary to prevent further disruption of the development of the Pharaoh.”
In October 2025, the Japanese Patent Office rejected Nintendo ‘ s patent application for its catch and release mechanism.
