Streaming emulated classics to a video game console from the cloud is neat. Adding new challenges not present in those streaming classics? That's awesome. It's also the idea behind a recently revealed patent filed by Sony.

Is this a new PlayStation Move? There's a newly-published Sony patent for a certain "flat joystick controller" which seems to look a lot like a PlayStation Move, but with a touchpad on the front.

You'd imagine that developing a new console system could well be a minefield of intellectual property related issues surrounding patents, design and the like. Recent Kickstarter project and Android-based tiny console GameStick overnight got pulled for the oddest of reasons.

A patent application published today resurrects the rumour that Sony's next gaming console will suppress the playing of used games and outlines how such a scheme would be accomplished without the use of an always-on internet connection for verification. In short, an RFID ID stamped onto the new discs would track their usage history and restrict them to one console.

A patent filed by Microsoft last year, but only made public last week, wants to turn your Xbox 360's Kinect into an instrument via which large companies can monitor your media usage and, if you're found to be in violation of something, charge you for it.

In May this year, Sony Computer Entertainment filed an application for a patent concerning biometric security. Not an entirely new idea, since there are consumer devices like phones (and the Kinect) that already have things like facial recognition, but it's the scale of Sony's thoughts on the matter that are important here.

It's not quite holodeck technology, but it's not far off. A patent filed back in March by Microsoft describes advanced display technology that extends the gaming environment from the television to all four walls of a room.

A Sony patent called "System for converting television commercials into interactive networked video games" is trying to do...well, exactly what its title says it's trying to do.

What the hell is this? A steering wheel? A jet fighter's yoke? It's certainly a peripheral for the PlayStation Move, with swing-wing handle grips out at the side. Why is that feature necessary?

Since 2010, Microsoft has been working on a gaming display system so small that it wouldn't need to be sitting on an entertainment unit or even held in your hands. You could wear it in a pair of glasses. Or in a stupid helmet.

Just because Nintendo creates a patent for something, it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to create the thing — I expect this might be the case with this completely bizarre Wii controller add-on, which looks like a periscope, or something Peter Venkman might use to, um... bust ghosts?

Three years ago Ohio-based technology company Motivia filed a patent lawsuit against Nintendo, alleging the Wii infringed on its 'Human Movement Measurement System' patent. Today an International Trade Commission judge ruled that wasn't the case. Grats, big N.

Maybe! A patent application, filed in 2010 but only recently uncovered, has Sony looking at biometric controls on devices that look like a DualShock, a PlayStation Move controller, and a handheld.

A Microsoft patent, filed in March 2010 but only publicly released last week, is called PARENTAL CONTROL SETTINGS BASED ON BODY DIMENSIONS. It's about using tech like Kinect to automatically restrict content on a PC or Xbox depending on who "or what" the camera sees in the room.

Our good friends at Fusible note, somewhat wryly, that while Nintendo's gotten around to filing patent applications on the Wii U it's lacking ownership of the wiiu.com domain. The console by that name is due for sale sometime in 2012.

Back in 2010, Nintendo filed a patent application for something called a "massively single-playing online game", something whose interactions don't take place in real time and what sounds a little Animal Crossing-ish (above).

The Nintendo 3DS uses glasses-free 3D technology that infringes on a patent held by a former Sony engineer, according to a lawsuit filed two weeks ago.

While the Blu-ray patent infringement lawsuit between electronics manufacturer LG and Sony rages on, a court decision in the Netherlands has halted the confiscation of PlayStation 3 systems entering Europe, with the more than 300,000 units already seized ordered returned.

Several thousand more PlayStation 3s were seized by Dutch customs officials on the eve of Sony's courtoom showdown with Korea-based LG, whose allegations of patent infringement have effectively halted the distribution of consoles across Europe the past 10 days.