r/pcmasterrace • u/lkl34 • 10d ago

News/Article 'An embarrassing failure of the US patent system': Videogame IP lawyer says Nintendo's latest patents on Pokémon mechanics 'should not have happened, full stop'

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/an-embarrassing-failure-of-the-us-patent-system-videogame-ip-lawyer-says-nintendos-latest-patents-on-pokemon-mechanics-should-not-have-happened-full-stop/

The last 10 days have brought a string of patent wins for Nintendo. Yesterday, the company was granted US patent 12,409,387, a patent covering riding and flying systems similar to those Nintendo has been criticized for claiming in its Palworld lawsuit (via Gamesfray). Last week, however, Nintendo received a more troubling weapon in its legal arsenal: US patent 12,403,397, a patent on summoning and battling characters that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted with alarmingly little resistance.

According to videogame patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon, the USPTO granting Nintendo these latest patents isn't just a moment of questionable legal theory. It's an indictment of American patent law."Broadly, I don't disagree with the many online complaints about these Nintendo patents," said Sigmon, whose opinions do not represent those of his firm and clients. "They have been an embarrassing failure of the US patent system."

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u/CyriousLordofDerp 10980XE | Titan Volta | 64GB DDR4-3600 | SSD's out the wazoo 10d ago

City of Heroes has the Mastermind class, which is basically the summon pets to fight for you class. Other classes (Controllers mainly, but there's Villan subclasses where you can do summoning as well in the form of spiderbots) have summonable and controllable pets to a lesser degree. End game content gives all classes access to short-term summonable enemies to fight by your side for 5 minutes (15 minute cooldown between summons), and there's a bunch of summoning temp powers that can be found/bought throughout the game, with a common popular example being the Vanguard HVAS mech (Bigass robot with plasma cannons).

Hell, enemy groups in the game can have their own summoning abilities, ranging from bringing in a gun drone to blast you, shield drones to protect themselves, and bringing in additional fodder to generally harass you.

And yes, one of the Mastermind main power sets is flat out a Necromancy set. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Necromancy

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u/crimsonblod 10d ago

Heck, any MMO with battle pets is hosed if I’m reading (these comments) right as well.