But wait. When did you actually, physically throw a Pokeball? Swiping over colored pixels wasn’t enough for [Trey Keown], so he built a real, throwable, Pokemon-catching Pokeball for Pokemon Go.

The game recently released an update that removed the ability for players to summon creatures from Pal Spheres after they were thrown, in the same way one would throw a Pokeball to summon a Pokemon.

The first patent, JP7545191, covers the throwing of Poké Balls, a core mechanic in the Pokémon franchise. This patent protects the system in which players aim and release a Poké Ball to capture wild ...