CARD, BOARD OR ROULETTE GAMES; INDOOR GAMES USING SMALL MOVING PLAYING BODIES; VIDEO GAMES; GAMES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

Introduced: September 1968

Last revised: January 1990

Classification Context

Section:: HUMAN NECESSITIES
Class:: SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
Subclass:: 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

IPC subclass A63F recorded 258,711 patent applications worldwide between 2013 and 2023. Annual filings grew from 17,709 in 2013 to 25,753 in 2023 (+45%), peaking at 26,705 applications in 2019. The most active applicants in class A63 are SANKYO (23,899 applications), SANYO PRODUCT COMPANY (23,718 applications) and DAIICHI SHOKAI COMPANY (13,338 applications).

Source: EPO PATSTAT, worldwide filings

Related Keywords

DIABOLO(1) GAME(S)indoor GAME(S) except bowling GAME(S)games using magnetically held piecesPARLOUR gamesTABLE(S) games

7 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 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
A63F 9/00 Games not otherwise provided for

Top Applicants

Top 10 applicants by patent filingsfor class A63, 2013–2023, worldwide · Source: EPO PATSTAT

SANKYO 23,899
SANYO PRODUCT COMPANY 23,718
DAIICHI SHOKAI COMPANY 13,338
KYORAKU SANGYO 10,447
UNIVERSAL ENTERTAINMENT CORPORATION 9,545
SANEI R & D COMPANY 9,135
SAMMY CORPORATION 7,126
NEWGIN CORPORATION 5,651
NETEASE 4,877
HEIWA CORPORATION 3,938