Nintendo Forced To Pay Royalties to Tomita on Every 3DS Sold

[deadish]

Obvious patent troll is obvious.

Did Tomita develop, market or try to do anything with the patent? Since they haven't released anything, we can say No.

Not for you to decide I'm afraid.

This patent system is a disease.

From the company that issue Youtube take down notices of videos with their games because it "violates their Intellectual Property", forgive me if I don't feel all the much sympathy.

 

[WeepingAngels]

Good. Anything that takes money away from Nintendo makes me happy.

Why?

Such a shame I can't just ask why. All I really want to ask is why but since I have to add more to avoid a warning....

You must really hate Nintendo, did they make your 360 red ring or something? Did they hack Mario into your Halo game?

 

[heroicbob]

I googled nintendo patent lawsuit and it seems they have been sued over patents for every console launch since the nintendo 64

 

[WeepingAngels]

Good. Anything that takes money away from Nintendo makes me happy.

Why?

Such a shame I can't just ask why. All I really want to ask is why but since I have to add more to avoid a warning....

You must really hate Nintendo, did they make your 360 red ring or something? Did they hack Mario into your Halo game?

Well OF COURSE. Anyone who doesn't like Nintendo is a Halo-loving frat boy! While we're at it, you could ask if they made me spill Mtn Dew on a 360. And I don't even own a 360.

Yeah, I don't like Nintendo. They are hugely overrated.

It was the best I could come up with. I didn't even want to type anything more than "Why" but we are on the Escapist.

I think Taco Bell is hugely overrated but I wouldn't want anyone to take money from them.

 

[WeepingAngels]

I googled nintendo patent lawsuit and it seems they have been sued over patents for every console launch since the nintendo 64

Maybe it's getting to the point that next time they will be sued for packaging their console in *Cardboard.


* = Trademarked.

 

[Covarr]

I might be off in this but in the Ocarina of Time remake, you can aim/look around using the cameras on the back of the display. Could the patent be interpreted to mean something like this?

Unless it's about looking at the user, and changing the angle of the screens to sustain the 3d illusion at different distances/angles. That, the 3DS definitely doesn't do.

...Or am I off on both accounts?

Bingo, you got it right the second time. I don't know how Tomita finagled their way to a victory here, unless the judge REALLY didn't understand the technology involved.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Roxas1359]

Bingo, you got it right the second time. I don't know how Tomita finagled their way to a victory here, unless the judge REALLY didn't understand the technology involved.

P.S. Thanks

Well the trial was held in the United States for a reason Covarr. XD
Let's just be glad that they didn't sue them in Texas, because the fines for it when suing there could actually put Nintendo down a few billions. (believe me it's bad)

 

[WeepingAngels]

Good. Anything that takes money away from Nintendo makes me happy.

Why?

Such a shame I can't just ask why. All I really want to ask is why but since I have to add more to avoid a warning....

You must really hate Nintendo, did they make your 360 red ring or something? Did they hack Mario into your Halo game?

Well OF COURSE. Anyone who doesn't like Nintendo is a Halo-loving frat boy! While we're at it, you could ask if they made me spill Mtn Dew on a 360. And I don't even own a 360.

Yeah, I don't like Nintendo. They are hugely overrated.

It was the best I could come up with. I didn't even want to type anything more than "Why" but we are on the Escapist.

I think Taco Bell is hugely overrated but I wouldn't want anyone to take money from them.

I have no idea. Never had a taco in my entire life. Nachos are definitely overrated, I'd take potato chips over them any day.

Well, I am sure potato chips are patented. I wonder if everyone has to pay royalties to fry up some potatoes.

 

[FalloutJack]

Zoop

Ah, well, see...I didn't know that. So...my original statement probably stands, then?

 

[Roxas1359]

Well, I am sure potato chips are patented. I wonder if everyone has to pay royalties to fry up some potatoes.

Well no, because you can't patent anything like that really since cooking oils and frying oils, along with potatoes, are derived from natural resources. You can't patent a natural resource. God help us if you could.
Also, patents are used mainly for technology and not food. Names are often trademarked, but that's usually for brands so then no one can actually use it against the company that is named that. Patent and Trademark laws are necessary, but are a bit outdated and as a result have been abused by patent trolls like Samsung and Apple.

Anyway, he said he doesn't like Nintendo because he finds them overrated, isn't that a good enough answer?

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Not for you to decide I'm afraid.

If you don't make an effort to use it, you shouldn't be allowed to keep it.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Probably just another patent troll. In all honesty I wish him no good fortune. I just don't get why this was done in America and not Japan.

 

[Roxas1359]

Probably just another patent troll. In all honesty I wish him no good fortune. I just don't get why this was done in America and not Japan.

It was a US patent that was in the case with licensing in the US. If it were a Japanese patent then it would have been tried in Japan.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

This is why I think patents should have an expiry date, so if the technology is not utilized by the patent holder within a certain amount of time then the patent expires and has to be renewed.

 

[Flutterguy]

If you read the patent, it's about using 3D cameras to determine user location, and adjusting 3D display accordingly. Notably, the 3DS doesn't even do this. I can't believe Tomita won this.

P.S. Thanks

Although they should have done that. Would have made the 3D playable for me. Standing at close to 7' playing a console that requires me to hold my face as far away as a child would.. can't be good for my back.

 

[immortalfrieza]

While the current system is an entire joke, patents are actually needed in some way because without them nothing would be stopping other companies from outright stealing the same exact technology that another company uses and call it their own.

Patents are an excuse to make money off of other people's work and since patents are for all intents and purposes monopolies they keep the creator from having to work to make sure their product is anything more than barely acceptable since they are the only ones who can legally provide that product. What should be stopping companies from stealing the tech and calling it their own is not patents but the original owner providing a superior product to any upstarts who try to steal it from them and as a result putting those companies out of business. If they can't do this then they don't deserve to still have that product.

 

[Chaos Marine]

EDIT: Wait. Two Japanese corporations and a US federal judge rule. Don't...they have ways of handling this in Japan?

I don't.....I don't understand this. A US judge decided this. A Japanese company that used unlicensed tech from another Japanese company....why is this not being dealt with in-country? I'm not being all "Oh, america needs to fuck off and stop oplicing the world and other such nonsense". I genuinely don't know and want to.

This is a US patent and a device licensed and sold in the US. These claims then run into issues within the US.

Is that true?

No.

Well, sort of. The patent dispute is in part about the cameras and the way they pick up and display an image. The image shifting is part of the patent but not the issue in dispute here. Nor, strictly speaking, is the 3D display itself.

You can find the rulings on the proceedings thus far online if you really want. I'd recommend not taking someone's word for it, as the prior poster seems to have an incomplete understanding.

That being said, it's still an anal decision. But honestly, what does one expect from law in the first place?

How would one enforce this at all?