It’s been over 20 years now since Konami’s genre-defining Beatmania hit arcades across Japan in 1997, with it ushering in a new wave of creativity in the arcade space unlike anything seen before it. It’s also been no secret since then that Konami has been extremely heavy-handed in protecting their intellectual property, essentially maintaining an iron grip over certain aspects of the genre due to a number of patents owned by the company. With that being said, it’s according to a number of recent Japanese reports that the very patent protecting some of the Beatmania series’ most common traits may have expired earlier today on July 31, 2018.

Originally put into effect on July 31, 1998, the patent was given a total applicable period of 20 years; from there the patent would no longer be applicable. What this expiration means for the rhythm gaming space is that a number of different aspects, including the use of certain files and key sounds, will now become widely available to those outside of Konami without the risk of lawsuits. For example, with the patent in place, it wasn’t possible for other companies to have sounds triggered when keys were pressed to the rhythm of a song, amongst other details.

Registered under Patent No. 2922509, it’s worth mentioning that while it appears this patent is expired, Konami is likely to still operate a number of different similar patents for different games in their BEMANI series. What this means for the future of rhythm game releases and updates remains to be seen, however one could only hope it’ll allow for more creative freedom in the space.

Source: Esuteru