Nintendo Trademark "Zii", Spark New Console Speculation

Ready for some gaming mystery?  Nintendo Japan have thrown the cat among the console pigeons by trademarking "Zii" on October 30, 2009.  Obviously there's no indication in the trademark application as to what the company intends to use the trademark for, but it seems destined to cause confusion what with Creative using the same name for their HD-capable mobile chipset.

In fact all the application says is that the Zii mark covers "video games and electronic devices".  Next-gen Wii replacement, perhaps, toting HD playback?  General consensus is that it's bizarrely late for Nintendo to be worrying about protecting itself from mis-spelt copycats of the existing Wii.

[via Kotaku]