Presentation of the MIPLM thesis by Nina Kolar

1. The IP and strategy
of a gaming giant
Nina Kolar
Master of Intellectual Property Law and Management (MIPLM)
Center for International Intellectual Property Studies
Academic year 2021 / 2022
University of Strasbourg

2. • Why and how?
• Legal research - legal databases and publications of the EUIPO, WIPO and USPTO
• Nintendo research - company website, financial reports, sustainability reports and other collected
and published information
• Various books and articles
• Interviews – with practitioners and Nintendo president

3. The gaming industry – an
overview
• A video game is an electronic game that involves
the player’s interaction with a user input device
• The gaming market has continued to grow through
2021 and generated total revenues of 180.3 billion
USD
• Income through sales of hardware and software as
well as through the shifting model of targeting
active users of a game, who create recurring
revenue through investing into a game they are
loyal to
• The video game is a multimedia collective artistic
work - company and game names, logos,
characters, even signature sounds as trademarks,
the game codes and software as copyright,
hardware as patents + trade secrets.
• Licensing of IP in the video game industry
• Self regulation of the industry

4. • Nintendo was founded in 1889. and
originally produced handmade hanafuda
playing cards
• A leader in both hardware and software
department
• More than 5.1 billion video games and over
800 million hardware units sold globally
• Today, they are one of the most valuable
companies in the Japanese market
• IP portfolio – a goldmine
Nintendo – the Company

5. Nintendo and intellectual property
• Importance of IP stressed since their
beginnings – trademark protection of name and
logo and fight against generification
• Over 500 international trademarks, 100
EUTMs, 500 national trademarks in the US
• Over 600 national and international patents,
and over 700 active industrial designs
• Thought out protection of both hardware and
software through interlapping IP rights

6. Past and future strategy
• Historically – through authentication chips,
lock out systems and the seal of approval
• Cost leadership, differentiation, target
audience, legal actions
• 2010s - Re-focusing on IP and the current
trends in the industry
• What do we want to achieve in this age of
digitalization?
• A big turn – mobile games (Pokémon Go,
Mario Kart Tour)
• Cooperation with other companies inside and
outside of gaming industry
• Future investment areas - merchandising
expansion, mobile expansion, theme park
activation, and visual content.

7. And what about sustainability?
• Sustainability and sustainable development
• Industry issues – mining and CO2 for hardware, e-
pollution, e-waste and carbon footprint for the
game
• Individual responsibility? Recycling, shutting down
electronics, getting digital copies
• Industry responsibility? Ethical mining, moving to
renewable resources
• Playing for the planet – organizations working on
offsetting the pollution from the industry

8. Conclusion
It is truly my belief that IP is one of the main
cornerstones of every industry, enabling
successful brands and franchises, such as the
one on the right, to be born, and creating profit
and revenue, which creates more opportunities
and jobs, which fuels more ideas and
innovations, which again turns the economical
hamster wheel into a forward direction. It has
been a pleasure researching for this thesis, and a
pleasure seeing the topics I have read about in
the last few months being used and implemented
by a leader of an industry, showing exactly why
they are on the forefront of it.

9. Thank you!