Nintendo has filed three new trademark applications with the US Patent & Trademark Office for something called “QOL”. Filed on July 25, the applications hint towards Nintendo’s mysterious Quality of Life initiative, which was announced earlier this year.

The three QOL trademarks are described as follows:

  1. providing games via communication by handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays.
  2. controllers and joysticks for consumer video game apparatus.
  3. electronic circuits, optical discs, ROM cards, ROM cartridges, CD-ROMs, and memory cards storing programs for consumer video game apparatus.

The commonality between each trademark application is that they are all tied to a “handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays.”

It all sounds very technical and interesting, but what does it actually mean? Without specific announcements from Nintendo, we can only speculate, however Nintendo President Iwata has previously said that their Quality of Life initiative will be unlike any other Nintendo product before it.

When we use ‘health’ as the keyword, some may inevitably think about Wii Fit. However, we are considering themes that we have not incorporated to games for our existing platforms. Including the hardware that will enable such an idea, we will aim to establish a blue ocean.

Described as a “completely new field of business,” and one that will involve some form of “non-wearable” technology, further information about the Quality of Life initiative will be shared later this year with the full launch expected sometime during Nintendo’s fiscal year, (from April 2015 to March 2016).

Do you like the sound of this initiative so far? What form do you think it will ultimately take? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.