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Nintendo's Supplemental Computing Devices For Game Consoles patent now issued/granted

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Reminder that just because a patent was issued doesn't mean it's going to be used...

I'm pretty sure everybody knows this, as well as the fact that it may be for a future system.
 
It also sounds like another way to keep online gaming free. All you have to purchase is DLC.

Since it will have a CPU/GPU, what amount of processing power would be needed to perform the task? How much memory would be necessary to make sure it doesn't run out, causing slow down.

Wouldn't it also need software storage space? I assume it would be much more efficient to have the game software installed on a hard drive.
 

Ck1

Banned
Some people in this thread are doing a good job concealing that if so


People are enjoying discussing the possibility of what this might bring to gaming because Nintendo has never pushed for a patent this hard before. No one is saying with certainty this will be used for NX, but with how hard they were seeking for its approval. It lends more credibility to it being so rather than not being used at all...
 
People are enjoying discussing the possibility of what this might bring to gaming because Nintendo has never pushed for a patent this hard before. No one is saying with certainty this will be used for NX, but with how hard they were seeking for its approval. It lends more credibility to it being so rather than not being used at all...

The bolded is confusing to me, as a patent expert. What makes you think they pushed hard for this patent? From what I saw they didn't file many special requests, like Patent Prosecution Highway or petitions to make special... Otherwise there's really no way to "push for a patent" any harder than the standard way everybody does it...
 
R

Rösti

Unconfirmed Member
The bolded is confusing to me, as a patent expert. What makes you think they pushed hard for this patent? From what I saw they didn't file many special requests, like Patent Prosecution Highway or petitions to make special... Otherwise there's really no way to "push for a patent" any harder than the standard way everybody does it...
Ck1 may be referencing the applicant initiated interviews that happened not long after the patent application was hit by a non-final rejection.

As you say though, the timeline is not too different from the standard.
 
Rösti;214246722 said:
Ck1 may be referencing the applicant initiated interviews that happened not long after the patent application was hit by a non-final rejection.

As you say though, the timeline is not too different from the standard.

Ah, I see. That's actually something that's becoming more and more common with patents in general, so I don't see that as a reason to think Nintendo was more interested in getting this patent granted than any others.

Not that I don't think it will be used with the NX (or future systems), since it seems like such a useful invention if only for the online gaming benefits.
 

Ck1

Banned
The bolded is confusing to me, as a patent expert. What makes you think they pushed hard for this patent? From what I saw they didn't file many special requests, like Patent Prosecution Highway or petitions to make special... Otherwise there's really no way to "push for a patent" any harder than the standard way everybody does it...

From the time we first noticed this patent made public, it seems as if how much they resubmitted with either adding or clarifying usage of said device in details. Has been as if it were on a needed time frame or something. I completely forgot to mention about the claimant for the patent discussing the nature of how it would theoretically work in an interview.

I know I've seen you state plenty of times that a patent approval doesn't designate whether a company can reveal and sell a product or not. As many products are made available to the public with patents pending... But we are talking about a very secretive Japanese company that runs their business from the artist standpoint and not the suit and tie ranks.
 
From the time we first noticed this patent made public, it seems as if how much they resubmitted with either adding or clarifying usage of said device in details. Has been as if it were on a needed time frame or something. I completely forgot to mention about the claimant for the patent discussing the nature of how it would theoretically work in an interview.

I know I've seen you state plenty of times that a patent approval doesn't designate whether a company can reveal and sell a product or not. As many products are made available to the public with patents pending... But we are talking about a very secretive Japanese company that runs their business from the artist standpoint and not the suit and tie ranks.

This patent application was filed June 3, 2014. Typically patent applications will be published somewhere between 3 and 18 months from the filing date, and this number typically will depend on how many applications are filed in a particular area of technology. In this case it was published December 3, 2015, exactly 18 months after filing, so at the high end of the wait period.

There was absolutely nothing stopping this application from being published on September 3, 2014 besides the fact that this technology center of the USPTO is typically one of the busiest. Nintendo/Joseph could have filed a non-publication request, in which case the patent application would not have been made of public record until August 16, 2016, but they chose not to.

Therefore, based on when and how they filed the patent application, Nintendo/Joseph were perfectly fine having this invention become public knowledge as early as September of 2014, so they clearly weren't banking on this being top secret. I don't know how else to prove it to you.

Also they only submitted one amendment to the claims, which is almost the minimum amount of "resubmissions" that are needed to get a patent granted (occasionally a patent will be granted without ever getting a non-final rejection and therefore zero amendments, but that's fairly rare from my experience). Again, there is nothing in the prosecution history of this patent which indicates Nintendo values it any more than any of their other patents.


Again, all that being said, I still find it to be one of the more interesting patents they've submitted, but there is no evidence anywhere showing that they are more focused on this tech than any other, or that they were ever trying to be secretive about it.
 
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