After a busy 2024 full of legal action, we've just been given a bit of insight into Nintendo's intellectual property rights strategy (which includes things like copyright and patents) from none other than the company's patent attorney, who argues that IP rights are essential for the games industry to have healthy growth.
As reported by Japanese site Game Watch (and translated by Automaton), this comes from a conference about "The Importance of Intellectual Property Rights in the Game Industry" at Tokyo eSports Festa 2025, which saw speakers from Sega, Konami, Nintendo and more weigh in on the topic.
Nintendo's perspective is particularly interesting considering how many headlines it made last year with its legal antics – from filing a lawsuit against a streamer for allegedly streaming leaked games to the patent infringement lawsuit filed against Palworld developer Pocketpair.
According to Nintendo patent attorney Koji Nishiura (who also serves as deputy general manager of Nintendo's intellectual property department), it sounds like the company is thorough with the variety of IP rights it seeks to acquire so it has more ways to protect its brand.
Nishiura explains that different forms of IP rights – like trademarks, patents, and design rights – can all offer their own scope of legal protection.