Nintendo Loses Patent Suit, Owes $21 Million

by Chris Faylor, May 15, 2008 7:37am PDT

Related Topics – Nintendo, Legal, Nintendo Wii

A jury has awarded Anascape $21 million of Nintendo funds after finding that the console maker violated the small company's patents.

Anascape pressed charges against Nintendo and Xbox maker Microsoft in 2006, claiming 12 patent infringements ranging from analog sticks to techniques for controller vibration. Microsoft settled the lawsuit for a undisclosed sum on May 1.

Nintendo was found to have infringed on Anascape's patents in its GameCube, WaveBird, and Wii Classic controllers, but not its motion-sensitive Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

Nintendo of America plans to appeal the decision and hopes to "significantly" reduce the amount owed, spokesman Charlie Scibetta told the Associated Press.

Read all the News

« Previous Story
Valve Releases Latest Steam PC Hardware Survey; Nvidia Cards and 4:3 Displays Lead

Next Story »
Morning Discussion

Comments

6 Threads | 23 Comments

#3

Refresh Thread

By: OverloadUT x Show Full Post

Reply

I believe I speak for many when I say: FUCK PATENT LAW.

It's so fucking broken. It needs to be like Trademark law where you have to actively protect it otherwise you lose it. This bullshit of waiting YEARS for the infringing company to become rich off of the infringement and THEN suing them is just complete and total bullshit.

But I know this is a dead horse and everyone says it. :(

May 15, 2008 8:06am PDT

toggle
I believe I speak for many when I say: FUCK PATENT LAW. It's so fucking broken. It needs to be like Tr... : OverloadUT
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 6 replies.
- toggle
  Exactly. Owning an idea and sitting on it does not support innovation. Either actively use it or defend i... : yakz
  - toggle
    do you know that they don't use these technologies? Generally the law says if your not planning on usin... : Lazarusspike
    - I think it's the fact that many of us are Nintendo fanboys. My biggest issue with this is the fact t... : silverback1138
- toggle
  NO! fuck companies like Anascape that are essentially patent trolls that do nothing with their patented t... : moshman
  - And the problem with Anascape is that what they did was a legal use of patent law. The Immersion case ... : OverloadUT

#10

Refresh Thread

By: mojorisen1117 x Show Full Post

Reply

Is this the same company that won a lawsuit against Sony because of a contoller rumble/shock patent?

May 15, 2008 8:39am PDT

toggle
Is this the same company that won a lawsuit against Sony because of a contoller rumble/shock patent? : mojorisen1117
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 5 replies.
- toggle
  You're thinking of Immersion, I think. : Chris Faylor
  - toggle
    Oh yeah. The controller patent world is getting more crowded. In unrelated news, I happen to have a p... : mojorisen1117
    - toggle
      Mildly funny that MS was named in the Immersion suit too, and simply settled ASAP there too instead of dr... : xsoulbrothax
      
      I think MS actually bought a stake in immersion : moshman

#15

Refresh Thread

By: blanktarget x Show Full Post

Reply

What does this Anascape company do? Even filtering out anything game related I couldn't find their homepage through google. Besides sitting on patents and hoping to cash in when someone falls into their web do they actually produce anything?

May 15, 2008 10:45am PDT

toggle
What does this Anascape company do? Even filtering out anything game related I couldn't find their homepa... : blanktarget
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.
- toggle
  Inventors don't have to be producers, it could be a 1 man operation. http://www.wikipatents.com/6906700.... : R.Cade
  - toggle
    Right, but did they use it for anything or just patent it then wait around? I understand they didn't have... : blanktarget
    - Did you know that there was also someone working on a theory of evolution at the same time as Charles Dar... : Charmplus

#5

Refresh Thread

By: Carnivac x Show Full Post

Reply

If freaking Microsoft actually decides to settle rather than continue fighting a lawsuit, it's a good sign you're probably on shaky ground if you continue.

May 15, 2008 8:16am PDT

toggle
If freaking Microsoft actually decides to settle rather than continue fighting a lawsuit, it's a good sig... : Carnivac
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
- Or they wanted as little bad publicity as possible and decided settling was simpler and possibly cheaper ... : blanktarget

#2

Refresh Thread

By: uglysad x Show Full Post

Reply

Nintendo of America plans to appeal the decision and hopes to "significantly" reduce the amount owed

Isn't 21 million a trivial amount to a company like Nintendo. I mean, I know 21mil is a lot of money but they did infringe on patents and make a lot of money of them. Maybe they should just suck it up

May 15, 2008 8:04am PDT

toggle
Nintendo of America plans to appeal the decision and hopes to "significantly" reduce the amount owed I... : uglysad
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 5 replies.
- toggle
  As long as it costs less than $21mln to appeal, might as well appeal. : yakz
  - toggle
    huh? What if it costs 15mil to appeal and they lose? You fail. : orgcaptainnemo
    - Not a lawyer, but I suspect it won't cost that much. They probably also have a legal team bought and paid... : Fayk
- they really aren't appealing for the money, they are appealing for the precedent set by the case. If they... : johnhead

#1

Refresh Thread

By: guido anchovy x Show Full Post

Reply

Here are the case documents on the story: http://news.justia.com/cases/featured/texas/txedce/9:2006cv00158/97919/

May 15, 2008 7:56am PDT

Here are the case documents on the story: http://news.justia.com/cases/featured/texas/txedce/9:2006cv0015... : guido anchovy

red	r{...}r	italics	/[...]/
green	g{...}g	bold	b[...]b
blue	b{...}b	quote	q[...]q
yellow	y{...}y	sample	s[...]s
limegreen	l[...]l	underline	_[...]_
orange	n[...]n	strike	-[...]-
multisync	p[...]p	spoiler	o[...]o
olive	e[...]e	code	/{{...}}/