Nintendo was just granted two new patents in the US amid The Pokemon Company's lawsuit against Palworld studio Pocketpair – a move one Baldur's Gate 3 developer doesn't think was played with good intentions.
Larian Studios publishing director Michael 'Cromwelp' Douse reveals as much in a new post online, responding directly to a thread highlighting the new patents Nintendo bagged – one of which could genuinely reshape the creature collector genre (and others, to be honest) entirely. "These types of patents are too often used in bad faith," he writes – a sentiment many share in the replies, with somebody saying on Nintendo, "By default, they operate in bad faith."
Another person comments, "I feel like this patent is pretty generic, surely they can't patent something as broad as this." Unfortunately, it seems as though they can – or at least did – and broad feels like an understatement. For anyone unaware of what the more concerning of Nintendo's two new patents covers, it revolves around the battle system found in Pokemon and just about every other creature collector out there.
These types of patents are too often used in bad faith https://t.co/89972KD6NBSeptember 10, 2025
The patent centers around the summoning of a "character" (in Palworld's case, that would be a Pal) and using it in combat against others – if there's a character that can move within a virtual "field" (space), a summonable "sub character" (think Pokemon or Pal), and an enemy character that's present within the area that the so-called "sub character" is summoned into to fight – that scenario could now effectively be rendered Nintendo-exclusive.
Although it's unclear how this will all affect Palworld, other creature collectors, or y'know, just about any game out there that has a similar battle system, it's not the first time Nintendo has bagged a new patent mid-lawsuit.
Pocketpair has also had to make "certain compromises" amid the legal battle to "avoid disruptions" in development, so there might be a chance the same may happen this time – although I, and it seems Douse, would prefer it not to.
