US patent 4,687,200 (cross-shaped switch)

Cite as: US patent 4,687,200 (cross-shaped switch)
Original: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4687200A/en
sha256: b175b8e6462de4317af05229c110cc1c7ca6eb4832571769bc891ef068ee169d
Archived: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/b5/a8/b6/ac7973f277d033/US4687200.pdf
Accessed: 2026-11-07
Licence: US patent text, public domain
Credit: Ichiro Shirai, inventor; Nintendo Co., Ltd., assignee.
Notes: Nintendo's cross-shaped key top: a single key member tilting on a fulcrum over conductive rubbers, shown in a hand-held game with a liquid-crystal display (the Game & Watch kind). It is a continuation of an application filed 5 August 1983, so its content dates to at least then. No Japanese priority is printed on it. The scan is a text-layer PDF from Google Patents.

Cited on

US patent 4,687,200, "Multi-directional switch", describes a switch formed in the shape of a cross on a hand-held game with a liquid-crystal display, where it moves the game's characters. Ichiro Shirai is its inventor and Nintendo its assignee; it was filed on 9 August 1985 as a continuation of an application of 5 August 1983, since abandoned, and issued on 18 August 1987.	`p. 1, front pagecol. 3, description of FIG. 2col. 3, description of FIG. 2col. 3, description of FIG. 2`	Patent
The patent's claim 1 doesn't say "cross": it claims a switch worked by a fingertip in several directions, one key member tilting over a base, its top concave to take the fingertip. Claim 6 adds protrusions reaching outward from the key's center, and claim 8 sets four of them on two crossing axes, a "cruciform shape". The description shapes the protrusions as a cross, sloped toward a concave center that fits the finger.	`col. 6, claim 1col. 6, claim 1col. 6, claim 6col. 3col. 7, claim 8`	Patent