After it was reported by Kotaku AU that Phantom Hourglass had been registered in Australia for a fresh patent last year, we at Zelda Universe decided to look into it a little further.
While we previously covered a specific type of trademark that Nintendo had filed in relation to Zelda, mostly pertaining to franchising and merchandizing, we have since found specifically what games they have registered for and what that might mean for the 35th Anniversary.
Searching a database of European intellectual property, we found that Nintendo had also registered a slew of new trademarks for older Zelda games last year—Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword patents were filed in May 2020 as part of the first of two submission groups.
These submissions have since passed the opposition period and are now officially filed in Europe. This means that they are fully protected intellectual property, and therefore viable candidates for potential surprises during the anniversary month.
Interestingly, Skyward Sword‘s original patent has not yet expired (March 2030), and yet Nintendo applied for a fresh one anyway. This could mean Nintendo is either covering all bases for the anniversary and making sure that knock-off merchandise isn’t produced, or that the company has new plans for the game.
The second group of patents—which includes Majora’s Mask, Phantom Hourglass, and The Wind Waker—were all filed in October 2020, and are still going through the opposition process in which a complaint could be lodged against them for breaching of intellectual property. This means that this second group is not officially trademarked again in the EU until March 1 of this year.
Knowing that there were fresh filings in Australia and Europe, we had a look at the United States Patent and Trademark Office and found more filings by Nintendo. These followed the same pattern as the European and Australian filings.
Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword were filed in the U.S. on the same day (May 14, 2020) and were both approved in January 2021. Majora’s Mask, The Wind Waker, and Phantom Hourglass were all filed later on July 14, 2020. An old filing for Twilight Princess was also found, but unlike Skyward Sword it has not been resubmitted at this time.
Without word from Nintendo, it is not yet known if these filings indicate new releases or ports to the Switch or if the company is simply covering its bases. Either way, Nintendo has the Zelda community talking.
