Et en Europe s'il vous plait, via TechnoLlama :

[...] The application is for a "Video game system and storage medium for storing program for use in the video game system". Not broad enough for you? I have read the abstract and some of the claims, and as far as I can make it, the claim is for a football game where the player can assign and store commands to pass the ball to the nearest available player, and the passing system can assign and display passing commands on screen. The claim is a triumph in patent gobbledygook, for example:

"...said guide displaying means further displays a pass guide mark (G3) accompanying another player character (P2) which belongs to the same team as said player character (P1) keeping said game medium (B) and to which said game medium (B) can most easily be passed from said player character (P1) keeping said game medium (B),"

So, passing the ball in-game is patentable. The application had been refused initially, but Konami appealed the decision and has won some claims. Firstly, the Board has agreed that there is no prior art for this application (I'm sure gamers reading this can come up with some examples). Secondly, the aspect of the technical nature of the "invention" is fulfilled by the fact that this is a solution to the limitations of gaming GUI, namely the fact that available players may not be visible as the player with the control plays the game normally. [...]

La justification du panel d'appel de l'Office Européen des Brevets (voir le billet cité) est tout simplement sidérante.