These patents are absolute bullshit and should be thrown the fuck out: They have existed in countless games and both predate Pokemon. It's absolutely insane what large corporations get away with by abusing the system because they have the resources to do so, while regular everyday people and small companies get screwed repeatedly.
Most customers won't know or care, unfortunately. People have been brainwashed into thinking that corporations have a moral right to aggressive litigation to protect their poor, fragile interests almost as if they were David and the indie studios who dare to break their totally fair patent on "having different buttons to confirm and cancel" or whatever were big bad Goliath. And many gamers, especially younger ones, who are Nintendo's core demographic, are notoriously ready to defend their pet corporations tooth and nail against any and all criticism, almost as if they were being personally attacked.
Part of the problem is the failure of patent offices to do due diligence. Granted, this was exacerbated by the lack of an electronic database that tracked prior patents, public domain stuff, and things declared too general to be patented by the courts.
The project in the US to transfer old patents to digital and make them searchable is way underfunded and understaffed, and still is expected to take decades to finish.
The thing is, big companies like being able to win IP cases just by outspending their opponents, so they lobby to keep IP law byzantine and draconian, and to install judges who are either ignorant or just will side with the bigger company.
edit: For those who seem to be struggling here, I am being facetious. No, the CEO of Nintendo did not travel to South America to slap a child. This is all a joke reference to copypasta mocking Nintendo's shitty, overly litigious behavior, calm down.
Paco Gutierrez, age 9, always wanted a Nintendo console. However, due to being extremely poor living in Venezuela, it was just a distant dream. Using his creativity and with the help from his uncle, he made a cardboard Super Mario game, posted it on YouTube and the video went viral. Thanks to the video, Nintendo's CEO Doug Bowser personally traveled to Venezuela, to give Paco a Cease and Desist order and sue his family for 200 million dollars.