Nintendo Wii Gets Sued....Again
This is starting to be a yearly event for the Nintendo: http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...atent-lawsuit/
I guess you just can't put a price on the common sense factor of trying to cash in on someone else's sucess...unless it's in a lawsuit of course. So this is what Uncle Ben meant when he said: "with great success comes greater gold diggers".
ALL HAIL THE 1 2 P
Originally Posted by THE 1 2 P
Come to think of it, I don't remember any lawsuits such as this winning. Gibson sued Activision because Guitar Hero 3 controllers resembled Gibson guitars, While these controllers had resembled Gibson guitars since Guitar Hero 1. Did Gibson win?
stupid money grubbing ip assholes! seriously the idea of intellectual property is ruining this country. I for one hope nintendo finds grounds for a counter-suit.
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What I don't understand is why they wait so long to file these things. The has been out for almost 2 years now. We knew what this thing could do way before that. Why wait if for no other reason than to make headlines and extort a company for some shakedown scratch?
Because they didn't care about there IP until they saw an opening to make a quick buck. They're probably hoping nintendo just settles out of court, I hope nintendo prolongs this in court just to burn their money up. If there is one thing i can't stand its frivolous law suits!
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"We have this idea. We don't have the capitol or the means to produce it so we patented it and shelved it. Besides, it's new and untested at market so the risk is too high to attract any help by investors. A dead end really."
"Alright, Higgins. Good call!"
Years latter.
"Sir, this idea we shelved because we couldn't produce it and decided not to even attempt to is making another company an assload of cash."
"Excellent catch Higgins, thankfully, our patent attorneys are on speed dial. Let's get paid!"
Remember guys, the inventor of the Video Cassette Player tried to sell his idea to American electronics companies first and was literally laughed out the door. He eventually sold his idea to a Japanese company for chump change ($25k IIRC). Now instead, they listen to the guy, laugh him out and have their R&D team copy the idea and patent it. It's a no risk venture (patent fee's being the only investment) and if the product is hot... BANG! Lawsuit city!!! It's like business slots! Well, without having to sit next to the chain smoking granny that keeps ordering Christian Bros. and water and hits the machine with her cane on losing pulls. :/
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It probably took them this long to realize they had this unused patent sitting around.
Apparently Activision and EA hold a shared patent on "3ds plane of scrolling notes" and a ton of other weird shit that makes other such games impossible to imitate.
They own the guitar games forever.
intellectual property is inherently broken. They grant patents for things which dont innovate in anyway.
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Funny when these types of lawsuits hit sony or microsoft, you get about 30 posts of people cheering the lawsuit on. Nintendo gets one and their are 8 people bitching about how the patent system is broken.
Patents are a frickin joke.
The patent system is broke and should be majorly overhauled.
If you don't have an actual product and the ability/funds to market it you should not be allowed to patent it. An idea is nothing until a working prototype is actually made.
Truer words have never been spoken.If you don't have an actual product and the ability/funds to market it you should not be allowed to patent it. An idea is nothing until a working prototype is actually made.
ALL HAIL THE 1 2 P
I'd love to shoot my mouth off about this, but since everybody else has been there I don't think I will because I respect monopolies on angst.
The bottom line, anyhow, is that both sides will have an epic legal battle and it will be decided whether Nintendo has a right to use the technology, or whether they're squashing a small laboratory that develops useful technology. If Nintendo has a clear case, they will win, and that's that.
Intentions don't really matter here - I can go out for a drive without intending to knock somebody over and still find myself in jail. The overall health of the market demands that small, innovative companies (especially R&D concerns) must have protection for their costly R&D work. Even if Nintendo did their due diligence to search out patents and license them, the other company should get the ability to license them as they please.
Here's Hillcrest Lab's press release regarding the motion, most relevant parts bolded for your pleasure:
One final note - the date a patent was issued is not a smoking gun, as typically they're filed long before. I dunno how long the period is for a patent to be approved but I believe it's a matter of years.Hillcrest Labs has filed a complaint for patent infringement with the U.S. International
Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, D.C., and a separate patent infringement suit in
the U.S. District Court in Maryland against Nintendo® related to the Wii™ video game
system.
Hillcrest’s patents at issue are U.S. Patent Nos. 7,158,118, 7,262,760,
and 7,414,611, which relate to a handheld three-dimensional pointing device, and U.S.
Patent No. 7,139,983, which relates to a navigation interface display system that
graphically organizes content for display on a television.
Since 2001, Hillcrest Labs has pioneered technology that allows consumers to interact
with digital media on television using motion-control and pointing techniques. The
company holds 29 patents in this area worldwide, and has filled for more than 100 related
patents.
Leading consumer electronics companies, not all of whom have been disclosed
publicly, have already licensed Hillcrest's technology for use in their products. While
Hillcrest Labs has a great deal of respect for Nintendo and the Wii, Hillcrest Labs
believes that Nintendo is in clear violation of its patents and has taken this action to
protect its intellectual property rights.
Given the current status of the filings, the company will not disclose any additional details
about the matter at this time.
So what you're saying is that R&D oriented firms like Sandia National Laboratories don't have a place in American society.Patents are a frickin joke.
The patent system is broke and should be majorly overhauled.
If you don't have an actual product and the ability/funds to market it you should not be allowed to patent it. An idea is nothing until a working prototype is actually made.
I urge you to reconsider that stance...having rewards for people who create art, or do scientific research, or report the news have critical functions in a healthy Democratic society.
Without these protections, we would have companies running amok, stealing ideas from garage inventors and stifling ideas, and possibly having too much political influence.
Here's another way of looking at it: Do you think the Microsoft anti-trust case was a good idea? It's basically the same issue, except the only wrinkle is that it's pretty clear Microsoft intended (at one time) to do "bad" things.
But as I said, judging intentions of corporations is meaningless because it's the results that matter (nevermind the difficulty of judging a company's intentions - the antitrust people had some luck that they were able to get incriminating memos; Nintendo might just be too secretive and smart to issue anything like that while harboring the same intentions).
If Microsoft was wrong, but Nintendo is in the right (assuming that the patent claim is valid by law), then everybody's simply mad because the law doesn't play favorites.
The press release states that they have been working to license the technology. Whether it happened before, or after, or not at all, and whether it's actually relevant will be determined at trial.
I will say this: I've heard of cases from layers where people were bringing frivolous lawsuits on technology they claimed they owned but didn't really. Those people are certainly annoyances and companies usually have to settle out of court to save more money in the long run.
It just seems to me that an established company like this isn't quite so likely to bring a frivolous lawsuit - but we'll see. People shouldn't just assume the worst.
Final note: Ironic that people would criticize companies for bringing lawsuits against one of the most litigious gaming companies around. Nintendo hasn't been hands-off with gaming enthusiasts, after all. Of course, I wouldn't be so silly as to argue this has anything to do with the topic at hand, of course, and I wish them the best.
Last edited by Ed Oscuro; 08-23-2008 at 09:08 PM.
Apologizing for post #3 up front, but here's another post I couldn't resist replying to:
You realize that
a.) Nintendo is a Japanese company
b.) Up to recently the US $ was falling versus other economies, so Nintendo shipped scarce units to other countries first so they got more money in terms of stronger currencies.
Wow, I made it through three replies without insulting anybody. Go me! And now back to your regularly scheduled program, and sorry for the wall of text, again.
Hey! I should make an MMO striking similar to EverQuest in every possible way, than sue Sony Online Entertainment into bankruptcy! It's a genious plan!
um, no... since everquest is out already. theyd be able to sue you (which is the case here, with nintendo being sued).
also, Lord of the Rings Online is a carbon copy of World of Warcraft... i dont see anyone suing anyone over that. game design, afaik, cannot be copyrighted.
I find this insulting.
Bacon, Bacon, Bacon, IT'S BACON!!!!
Anyone remember the mark of kri developers though there button attack scheme was so good they patented it.. That flopped.
neo geo system
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