Trademark Topic: Nintendo Home Consoles

First US Release: October 18, 1985

Current Owner: NINTENDO OF AMERICA INC. [1]

Trademark Type: non-traditional trademark; trade dress; configuration mark

Brief (and likely incomplete) History [2]:

Nintendo has a long and storied history (first starting with playing cards!) and has released some of the most famous home consoles and handheld consoles in history. Let’s take a look at major releases of Nintendo home consoles (and some non-traditional trademark registrations!).

Did you know that Nintendo’s home console journey did not begin with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) (known as the Famicom in Japan)? Nintendo released its first home console in Japan on June 1, 1977: the Color TV-Game. This series of self-contained consoles featured built-in games, most of which were simple Pong-like titles. Developed in partnership with Mitsubishi, the Color TV-Game models were only available in Japan but sold millions of units, establishing Nintendo’s early reputation as an innovative tech company.

The breakthrough came with the Famicom (short for “Family Computer”), released on July 15, 1983, in Japan, and launched as the NES in North America on October 18, 1985. With the U.S. market still reeling from the 1983 video game crash, Nintendo cleverly marketed the NES as an “entertainment system,” complete with a toy robot accessory to distance it from failed consoles. The strategy worked: the NES revitalized the industry and introduced now-iconic franchises like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo built on that momentum with the Super Nintendo (SNES) in 1991, the Nintendo 64 in 1996, and the GameCube in 2001. The 2006 release of the Wii brought motion controls into the mainstream, while the Wii U in 2012 struggled with consumers despite its unique gamepad. Redemption came in 2017 with the hybrid Nintendo Switch, and as of June 5, 2025, Nintendo began a new chapter with the Switch 2, a more powerful system that continues to blur the line between handheld and home console gaming.

Nintendo owns a number of non-traditional trademark registrations for its home console controllers. The NES Controller, SNES Controller, N64 Controller, Wii Mote, and Wii Nunchuck configuration marks are all registered trademarks for a variety of goods, and primarily for electronic game controllers for video game machines.