Nintendo Loses Controller Lawsuit

[Andy Chalk]

Nintendo Loses Controller Lawsuit

Wii [http://www.nintendo.com]controllers.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2006 by Anascape, a small Texas-based company that claimed that Nintendo's designs for its Wii Classic, WaveBird and GameCube controllers infringed upon 12 patents granted to Anascape covering technologies including analog sensors and feedback and vibration mechanisms.

A federal jury ruled in favor of Anascape yesterday, and ordered Nintendo to pay $21 million in damages.

Charlie Scibetta, a representative for Nintendo, said the company would appeal the decision, and expects the court to reduce the amount of the award "significantly," according to an AP [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQ6Wf79U2gOHfVtgofTAabguIu3QD90LQ99G4]report. He added that Nintendo was pleased the jury found no infringement in the use of motion-sensitive technology in its Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers.

Along with Nintendo, Anascape also sued Xbox 360 [http://www.microsoft.com] controllers, but Microsoft elected to settle with Anascape before the start of the trial. Anascape's suit originally sought damages with interest for the patent infringement, as well as a permanent injunction barring both companies from further use of the technology, or, failing that, a payment of "license fees" for the two companies to continue using the technology.


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[Skrapt]

Wow Anascape are being real dickheads, I mean just google them, they have no products on the market whatsoever. I can understand arguments over patents, but why does Anascape even have a patent if it hasn't made the product?

 

[Maveric1984]

They already did didn't they? Isn't this the company that sued the pants off of Sony about the PS3 controller and got them to take out the vibration function?

 

[ccesarano]

Another company sued Sony, though I can't recall the company's name at the moment.

This is....amazingly retarded. I'm starting to get sick of patent laws, because these guys, with absolutely no product, are assuming that Nintendo intentionally peaked at their patents to steal the technology. Something makes me doubt that's how it happened.

 

[nightfish]

Wow Anascape are being real dickheads,

Is that because they are going after your favourite companies?

Quite simple. If someone has produced something give them credit. Wouldn't you be annoyed if someone took credit for something you made?

 

[Singing Gremlin]

This made me giggle. Go on, have at 'em!

The sheer audacity of going up to both Microsoft and Nintendo and saying "oi, you nicked me ideas you sod, fork over!" and getting away with it is fantastic.

 

[Watershed]

Wow Anascape are being real dickheads,

Is that because they are going after your favourite companies?

Quite simple. If someone has produced something give them credit. Wouldn't you be annoyed if someone took credit for something you made?

Have they produced something? Or have they just taken advantage of the patent system and patented the technology without producing anything?

 

[GyroCaptain]

Eh, another company playing dog-in-the-manger with patents rather than actually, you know, getting in the marketplace. It's all fair and legal to go bonzo with patents you don't intend to use, but just because they're targetting the large (and thus evil... :B) companies doesn't mean it's any less obnoxious.

 

[Engar]

Patent Farming, it's an unfortunate part of the gaming industry.

 

[Bongo Bill]

Patent trolls are an inescapable part of the tech business, unfortunately.

 

[nightfish]

You don't have to put things on the market. If you've created a tech and are putting it towards something not yet released etc

 

[Arbre]

You don't have to put things on the market. If you've created a tech and are putting it towards something not yet released etc

Excuse me, but this is incredibly naïve.

These features are rather well spread, and there's much money to make on them through the classic ways. How many controllers have been sold which included those features? How many more for the years to come?
So what are the chances that you won't try to exploit such a technology you've invented, trying to sign deals with hardware manufacturers?

Extremely slim, to say the least. There'd be no logic in that. Any company that cherishes its creativity, ingenuosity, wants to live from it.

Now, what are the chances that these guys have bought the patents, just to wait for some big ass company to come with something close or very close, and that without ever producing anything with those very patents?

Huge.

That's patent trolling 101.

 

[stompy]

Meh, they're all dicks... I'm gonna go back to my 'happy place' now. The real world's not cool anymore...

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

In the event that anyone wants to know what went down:

http://news.justia.com/cases/featured/texas/txedce/9:2006cv00158/97919/

You can access all pertinent court documents from the lawsuit there. Public disclosure laws and all that. Here's the analog pressure sensor patent (one of several, but the biggest violation) he sued over, posted in 2000:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=i4EDAAAAEBAJ&dq=Game+Controller+with+Analog+Pressure+Sensor

And yeah...this seems like a situation of asshole #1 and asshole #2 duking it out.

 

[sharp_as_a_cork]

Kwil,
It's not that simple.
How can you prevent someone hired by an interested company accessing the patent and then copying/explaining/delivering the information to the company? How can you prove/disprove that was done?
What happens if the original patenter goes into financial problems and isn't able to cash in on the patent for three years... should the patent expire?

 

[Gasaraki]

wait, they put out the patent in 2006?
vibration technology has been out much longer than that!
you can't just file a copyright claim on something after someone has already invented it.

 

[Blackadder51]

Wow, this is one hell of a necro mate

OT: Well good for Anascape