SIE and Bandai Namco were the strongest patent holders in the industry in 2023, says study 

A study conducted by Japanese patent analysis service Patent Result names Sony Interactive Entertainment the strongest patent holder in Japan’s video game and entertainment industry in the fiscal year 2023. Bandai Namco and Gree come in second and third place respectively, with companies such as Cygames, Capcom and Sega also making the top ten list. 

The above ranking accounts for both patent quantity and quality. In other words, the patent asset value takes into consideration how many valid patents each company possessed from April 2022 to the end of March 2023, as well as the relevance of said patents. The relevance of patents is calculated based on the frequency of a given patent being cited as basis for rejection of another company’s patent, the frequency of competitors’ actions to restrain the patent applicant and similar factors. This score is multiplied by the remaining period until the patent lapses. 

According to Patent Result, SIE’s high-profile patents include technologies related to “network architecture capable of providing high-speed access to network storage” and an “input device with improved handheld controller responsiveness.” These technologies have been filed for registration not only in Japan, but in the US, Europe and China as well. 

While Bandai’s strongest patents seem to be related to their Toy and Hobby business, Cygames appears to possess high-profile patents related to game technologies that “reduce disparity between players.” 

In a similar study for the fiscal year 2022, Konami was at the top of the industry in terms of patents, but it seems SIE took the lead by far in 2023.