I remember reading that Japan is very weird in regards to patent law, there's almost no oversight whatsoever even for incredibly basic concepts like a title screen but there's kind of a general agreement not to sue eachother. Assuming thats true Nintendo is currently burning a lot of face right now by breaking that precident.

They aren't "new" patents. They're divisional patents, essentially splitting an older patent into two different patents that retain the date of the parent patent.

Either way this is a pretty scummy move on Nintendo's part.

Not sure how it works in Japan but you're probably right. Edit: Was thinking about this article that lays out the known details pretty well