Nintendo controllers possibly banned in patent dispute

[Mountain Man]

It was already known that Nintendo was on the hook for $21 million in a patent suit over the company's controllers. A Texas judge last week denied the game maker's request for a new trial, and Bloomberg is reporting that the judge will issue a ban to halt sales of the controllers tomorrow.

However, if the ban were to be issued, it would not take effect until after a Nintendo appeal on the original ruling was resolved. Nintendo could also avoid the ban by posting a bond or putting royalties into an escrow account, according to Bloomberg.

The original suit sought to have Nintendo's Wii Classic Controller, Wii Nunchuk, GameCube controller, and GameCube WaveBird all deemed in violation of an Anascape patent for a "six degrees of freedom" interface device. A jury found that all of those products, with the exception of the Wii Nunchuk, infringed on Anascape's patent.

Microsoft was also named as a defendant in the suit, but settled out of court before it went to trial. Sony has licensed the patent for use in its own products since 2004.

Source (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6194855.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews%3Btitle%3B4#post_comment)
This looks like the patent in question:

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6906700.html

and frankly, the design is so obvious and could plausibly be independently created by any number of people with sufficient technical knowledge and skill that I honestly don't know how they even secured a patent in the first place, especially when they apparently don't have a working prototype of their own. Well, I do know, it's because of the incompetency of the patent office when it comes to dealing with patents of a technical nature, and unfortunately, that same same incompetence in the hands of a trail judge is going to hurt Nintendo.

The patent system needs a significant overhaul to stop crap like this from happening.

[Superczar]

The patent/copyright/trademark system has been a bad thing for decades now.

[avatar_58]

The patent/copyright/trademark system has been a bad thing for decades now.

And like every claim before it no one will care and it will be settled without us knowing the end result. The Wii's hardware isn't going anywhere.

[Wamplet]

^ Agreed. I thought it was already resolved by now, because i hadn't heard about it in the news lately.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

It appears that the Wiimote and Nunchuck are not affected... the rest I don't care about.

[Altered Reality]

that same same incompetence in the hands of a trail judge is going to hurt Nintendo.
Oh, boo hoo hoo. So now Satoru Iwata will only be able to afford 99 Ferraris instead of 100. Big whoop.

ATTEMPTING TO GIVE A SHIT... FAILED.
SHIT NOT GIVEN.

[superevilcube]

1. Nintendo infringes on Anascape's patent
2. Judge denies a new trial after it was ruled that Nintendo infringed on the patent
3. Judge issues ban on controllers that infringe on Anascape's patent.

Where's the incompetence of the judge? (Unless I'm missing something.)

[Mountain Man]

I didn't say it was going to hurt them badly, but to think a company, even one as successful as Nintendo, can sniff at a $21 million settlement (plus whatever other royalty fees are leveled against them) is rather naive.

Plus there's the matter of patent squatters earning money off of other people's hard work. Patents were never meant to provide a source of income for "think tanks", people who patent anything they can think of in hopes that they can sue somebody over it some day, but to protect legitimate products, and as far as I know, these Anascape rascals don't even have a working prototype of their idea, and the patent they hold is for something both obvious (in other words, it didn't require any special knowledge or insight to develop) and overly broad.

It's a meritless suit, and I, for one, hope the Anascape bastards don't get a dime from Nintendo.

[Mountain Man]

1. Nintendo infringes on Anascape's patent
2. Judge denies a new trial after it was ruled that Nintendo infringed on the patent
3. Judge issues ban on controllers that infringe on Anascape's patent.

Where's the incompetence of the judge? (Unless I'm missing something.)
The judge is appealing to the incompetence of the patent office in his ruling. That's what I meant when I said "and that same incompetence in the hands of a judge".

[avatar_58]

Oh, boo hoo hoo. So now Satoru Iwata will only be able to afford 99 Ferraris instead of 100. Big whoop.

ATTEMPTING TO GIVE A SHIT... FAILED.
SHIT NOT GIVEN.

Rich = who cares about logic? Screw "the man" as it were? Yeah that makes sense. I don't care if it's Microsoft or Ma and Pa, the patent system is broken and needs to be reworked.

This shit where people come up from the boondocks at just the right moment to complain are nothing but cash grabs.

[Hudson]

Nintendo will throw money at them and everything will be kosher again.

Man, I should start a business with these vague patents.

1. Place patent
2. ????????????
3. PROFIT!

[Superczar]

This shit where people come up from the boondocks at just the right moment to complain are nothing but cash grabs.

Yeah, and didn't this same sort of situation happen to Sony?

[Yenji]

I was reading about this earlier today and it stated that Nintendo wants to go to the end with it. Good. Settling cases like this is a bad thing because then every company will come knocking on your door looking for a hand out.

The patent system is a crock

[superevilcube]

Yeah, and didn't this same sort of situation happen to Sony?

Yeah, the rumble patent infringement with Immersion (or something like that). I think Sony ended up settling... but don't quote me on that.

[The Stinger]

I was reading about this earlier today and it stated that Nintendo wants to go to the end with it. Good. Settling cases like this is a bad thing because then every company will come knocking on your door looking for a hand out.

The patent system is a crock

"Haha, we are sueing your ass because we own the blue leds on consoles and white controller patents! Pay up, MOFO!!!1!11!111 :mad:"

[Hudson]

Yeah, the rumble patent infringement with Immersion (or something like that). I think Sony ended up settling... but don't quote me on that.

They ended up coming to an agreement with Sony buying some kind of license and Immersion getting a cut from PS2/PS3 sales.

According to EGM Microsoft is suing Immersion now because when they first settled they bought 10% of Immersions stock expecting to get their money back when Sony caved and forked over a large settlement, and since Immersion/Sony went a different way about it they're pissed.

[The Stinger]

According to EGM Microsoft is suing Immersion now because when they first settled they bought 10% of Immersions stock expecting to get their money back when Sony caved and forked over a large settlement, and since Immersion/Sony went a different way about it they're pissed.

Oh, that will be fun. :D

[Hudson]

Hmm, wikipedia doesn't seem to confirm the EGM article. Apparently Sony did buy licenses but also had to pay $97.2 million in royalties.

Maybe it has to do with the future rights to Immersion patents :confused:

[Edit]: Oh, here it is: http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/18/microsoft-sues-immersion-over-alleged-breach-of-contract/ // http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9730964-7.html

Maybe it wasn't wrong after all.

[Mountain Man]

I think Nintendo needs to challenge Anascape to produce an actual controller following the patent specifications to the letter to determine if the patent is for a viable design and to see if Nintendo's designs are appreciably similar to qualify as a patent violation. My guess is it'll be no on both counts.

Henry Ford apparently did something similar when a company came to him claiming to have a patent on the automobile and asking for royalties. When the company finally produced a car to the specifications stated in the patent, it tipped over very easily on corners and so the patent was revoked since the design was not viable, and the judge ruled in favor of Ford.

[The Stinger]

A person or company should only keep a patent if they actually make a product out of it in a said amount of time.

[wayskobfssae]

"Haha, we are sueing your ass because we own the blue leds on consoles and white controller patents! Pay up, MOFO!!!1!11!111 :mad:"

I've always wondered how f'ed up the world would be if the system could've existed at the dawn of human civilization.

Then our headline would read:

"Joe Caveman sues Mammoth, Inc. - Claims that using a rock to tenderize raw meat is in violation of his stone-hammer Patent."

[Yenji]

"Haha, we are sueing your ass because we own the blue leds on consoles and white controller patents! Pay up, MOFO!!!1!11!111 :mad:"

OMG WTF patent infringement LoLoLoLoLoLoLoL!!! :doh::doh::doh:
....don't give them ideas :o


On a serious note I do believe that some sort of law needs to be in place to prevent people from ripping off each other, but the current system is shown to be highly ineffective. Like if some company came out with a system called the 'wee' bundled with a game called 'wee athletes' that allowed you to play baseball, tennis, boxing, etc using a black 'motion sensitive' remote controller then I could see grounds for suing. Ha ha yes I am being extreme :)

Sadly though we're getting to the point now where companies are going to have a hard time creating anything without having to license a bunch of patents or risk being sued. If I went out and made a toe nail clipper I'd probably get sued by some patent mentioning "to reduce the size of a nail of varying lengths using a molded metal or steel plate" :p

Shame.

[Little Conqueror]

American patent law is absurd. I could come up with a design for any sort of device without actually having the skill or resources to make it, and then once someone actually does make it, I can sue the pants off of them.

[Another Duke Fan]

American patent law is absurd. I could come up with a design for any sort of device without actually having the skill or resources to make it, and then once someone actually does make it, I can sue the pants off of them.

This is correct and as far as I am aware it is not much better over here, in Europe. In fact, it is known and popular to design patents in such a way to possibly block any attempt to even create an alternative or substitute. There are companies and "specialists", who earn extremely well for their ability to legally tie up the minds and the hands of competition and yes, this is being missused at large.

[Mountain Man]

The thing that's screwy is even the original NES controller could conceivably fall under this patent since it can give you "six degrees of freedom": forward, back, left, and right with the + pad, up with the A button, and down with the B button. There's your six degrees, and I think the NES controller came out just tad before this patent was filed.