A63F CARD, BOARD, OR ROULETTE GAMES; INDOOR GAMES USING SMALL MOVING PLAYING BODIES; VIDEO GAMES; GAMES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
Description
A63F covers the mechanical, structural, and electronic apparatus for traditional and digital games played indoors. It encompasses card games, board games, roulette systems, tabletop games with small moving pieces (such as billiards, pinball, or miniature gaming tables), and video games and electronic gaming systems. This subclass excludes outdoor sports equipment and games (covered under A63B) and focuses on the gaming apparatus itself rather than the rules or gameplay methods. It includes patents for game boards, card shufflers, electronic gaming consoles, game controllers, and the physical hardware enabling gameplay.
Filing statistics
CPC subclass A63F recorded 94,006 patent applications worldwide between 2013 and 2023. Annual filings grew from 5,890 in 2013 to 9,960 in 2023 (+69%), peaking at 11,044 applications in 2021. The most active applicants in class A63 are NETEASE (4,324 applications), TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY (3,255 applications) and SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT (2,643 applications).
Source: EPO PATSTAT, worldwide filings
9 direct subcodes
Child Classifications
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- A63F 1/00 Card games
- A63F 11/00 Game accessories of general use
- A63F 13/00 Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions
- A63F 2250/00 Miscellaneous game characteristics
- A63F 2300/00 Features of games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions, e.g. on a television screen, showing representations related to the game
- A63F 3/00 Board games; Raffle games
- A63F 5/00 Roulette games
- A63F 7/00 Indoor games using small moving playing bodies, e.g. balls, discs or blocks (board games or raffle games A63F3/00; roulette games A63F5/00; miniature bowling games A63D3/00; bagatelle or similar games A63D13/00; billiards or pocket billiards A63D15/00)
- A63F 9/00 Games not otherwise provided for
Top Applicants
Top 10 applicants by patent filingsfor class A63, 2013–2023, worldwide · Source: EPO PATSTAT
- NETEASE 4,324
- TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY 3,255
- SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT JP 2,643
- TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY CN 2,353
- UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS US 2,005
- KARSTEN MANUFACTURING CORPORATION US 1,883
- ACUSHNET COMPANY US 1,495
- MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING US 1,272
- NINTENDO COMPANY JP 1,260
- SONY CORPORATION JP 1,169