These days, Shigeru Miyamoto's creations are synonymous with Nintendo itself, but there was once a time when even Miyamoto was just a college kid interviewing for a job just like anybody else. He brought a portfolio of his work to Nintendo for that interview - and it seems the company tried to patent one of the items he showed off well before it had officially hired him.
Miyamoto graduated from industrial design university with thoughts of designing home appliances, or toys and playground equipment for kindergarteners. This was in the '70s, when Nintendo was still primarily known as a toy and traditional game company - well before it had gone all-in on video games.
