Nintendo found guilty of patent infringement
Patent infringement can sure be expensive (although $21 million is probably just chump change for Nintendo these days). In any case, Nintendo will have to pay up, since the company was found guilty of the crime by a federal jury.The issue stems from the technology in the Wavebird, Classic, and GameCube controllers, which led Anascape Ltd. to sue Nintendo in 2006. Anascape also named Microsoft in the suit, but the two companies reach a settlement before the case went to trial.
Nintendo will be appealing the decision, though, in the hopes that the sum will at least be reduced.
[Via Game|Life]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Orion @ May 16th 2008 9:06AM
Courts should realize that when companies come in 5 years after the product came out and sold, they are only sueing to make a quick buck, and not because it hurt their business. Who the hell has even hurt of this company before anyway. Sounds like most of these patents... they make a patent one day so that years down the road when someone actually KNOWS how to make it, they can say they "thought" of it first.
PS: I hearby claim the patent for a surgically installed "phone" that can be put in your brain. There... I have no idea how the hell to make it, but I'll sue for millions of dollars by the time im ready for retirement and a company has figured out how it works.
F0EHammer @ May 16th 2008 9:41AM
If we flip back to the reality of what patents _really_ are they are not just a simple idea of something that could be done. They are the _how_ of doing it. Take, for instance, the d-pad. Sony, M$, and nintendo all have different d-pads. Why? Because the nintendo cross d-pad construction is patened. Other entities can make a device that allows 4-way input; it just can't be made like nintendo's (else a lawsuit). While it is sad our beloved nintendo has to pay out some money, it is just the way that industry works.
PS: you need to submit your patent to the US Patent Office, not wii fanboy.
PPS: World of Goo FTW
James Madley @ May 16th 2008 12:25PM
And again let's flip back to the reality of this situation and many others similar; they went after a big name company years after they apparently infringed.
This isn't about protecting ideas anymore, it's about the money. That is unless the American courts are so horrible that it takes 5 years for a complaint to actually be looked at.
Ryan Hartman @ May 16th 2008 11:14AM
Nintendo is the New Englad Patriots of the video game world.
raindog @ May 16th 2008 11:53AM
I don't understand how someone can claim a patent on a self-centering analog joystick with a dome cap when Nintendo shipped one before they even filed the patent. I don't even see what novelty the patented design really adds over the design of the Vectrex self-centering analog joystick, released in 1982.
But apparently East Texas was willing to bend over backwards once again to interpret the law in favor of the patent holder, which is why patent trolls incorporate and file all their lawsuits there.
Kamek @ May 16th 2008 3:20PM
Who the heck is Anascape?
If they're so good at getting patents for gaming equipment, why don't they actually make stuff?
old-big-head-2008wiiboy @ May 16th 2008 5:46PM
so do sega micosolft sony 3rd party control companys owe nintendo billions
every single standard pad/controller made is a direct copy of Nintendo's own inventions innovations
d-pad=nintendo
analog= nintendo
rumble=nintendo
shoulder buttons =nintendo
dualshock is based on snes pad with added at the bottom analogs
xbox and x360 pad= evolution of sega dreamcast pad
the whole entiure classic pad traditional pad is all owed to nintendo themselfs
fact its every one else who owes nintendo not the otherway round
nintendo gets a guilty on a obvious non issue you watch bill gates get away with blatent copying
just like his op systems
Justin @ May 17th 2008 12:14AM
ahhhh, no, why are you back after all this time??
Ujn Hunter @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:51AM
Of course it's about the money... why else would they bring them to court? You'd all do the same thing if you stood to gain 21 million dollars... It sucks for Nintendo, but don't pretend you wouldn't do it too! ;)