Nintendo is being sued for patent infrigement because of 3D display in theNintendo3DS

[solitonmedic]

Source: Nintendo 3DS Blog and Shack News

Here are the articles.

Shack News:

Tomita Technologies recently brought suit against Nintendo for allegedly infringing on a patent filed in 2003 and issued in 2008. Patent 7417664--"Stereoscopic image picking up and display system based upon optical axes cross-point information"--does have some similarities to the recently-released 3DS. Primarily, the patent is for a "pick-up and display system" that can offer stereoscopic 3D imagery by displaying different images to each eye. The end result is 3D without glasses, a key feature of Nintendo's handheld.
"Nintendo's America's infringement of the '664 patent has been, and continues to be, willful," the complaint alleges, without detailing the exact nature of the infringement. Tomita claims to be damaged "in an amount not yet determined." The company is seeking a trial by jury, and awaits a decision by the court.
Nintendo is no stranger to litigation, with each platform launch eventually meeting a lawsuit. The Wii's motion controls and DS' touch controls have been the topic of previous suits.
We've reached out to Nintendo of America for comment.

Nintendo 3DS Blog

Tomita Technologies is suing Nintendo for supposedly infringing on one of their patents. The patent, found here, has many similarities to the technology found in the 3D display for the Nintendo 3DS. On the surface it doesn’t look too good for Nintendo, and I’m curious to see what they have to say in response. But patents are not exactly my speciality, so I’m not sure where this is heading. As reported by Shack News though, Tomita is “seeking a trial by jury, and awaits a decision by the court.

Your thoughts?

 

[Palpi]

Doesn't effect me, but it sucks for nintendo.

 

[1048576]

Oh good. If enough big companies get sued over this kind of thing, maybe the govt. will take its head out of its own *** and do something about our ridiculous patent system. Making it so the patent-office doesn't get more money for assigning a patent to anything and everything would be a start.

 

[Palpi]

This isnt the first time this happened to nintendo.

 

[Sinji]

yea. remember the incident with gamecube?

 

[BlueZebra]

Deja vu...

 

[SSBMLahti]

It's ****ing Nintendo.

That is all.

 

[theeboredone]

Happens often in the computer/phone world. Mainly with Apple.

 

[SupaSairentoZ7℠]

Poor Nintendo. I do wonder how they will react.

 

[solitonmedic]

I knnnnnow... Sony always have little rats perking around just to sabatoge little Nintendo..

 

[Spelt]

Everyone will forget about this in a week.

 

[solitonmedic]

Ditto.
20scoutpigeons

 

[Pluvia]

That'll teach 'em

 

[choknater]

reminds me of zuckerberg getting sued by the winklevoss twins

this will hardly affect nintendo lol. they're making bank off their products

 

[Teran]

It will totally affect Nintendo if they lose.

 

[Pikaville]

No it won't hahaha.

They have so much money they could just throw at this to make it go away.

 

[Teran]

A patent battle on the 3DS' screen?

If they lose they have to take them off the shelves or find a workaround or pay ridiculous amounts of money to the company, and while you may think that's not a big deal, it will cause their shares to plummet and that will massively impact their net worth and they will basically go in having to sell the Wii U like hotcakes or they're ****ed.

So yes, it's best they don't lose this.

 

[AltF4]

Companies the size of Nintendo get sued for patent infringement every day of the week. Patents (especially software patents) are a tax on innovation. Nothing new here. Don't worry about Nintendo, they have millions of dollars to throw at the problem. It's the smaller companies that you should be concerned about FROM the giants like Nintendo.

 

[OmegaXXII]

Like it's been said, Nintendo is a corporate giant, they literally get a law suit with a new system launch, I'm sure it's nothing new to them, just another little problem they will probably have to face when the Wii-U comes out as well.

 

[Serris]

Did you not read Teran's post? The 3DS sales are lackluster already. If Nintendo has to pull them off the shelves because of a patent infringement, they're screwed. If they have to settle and pay royalties, that means every 3DS sold after the price drop will likely be losing money with each unit produced. Nintendo's share value will go down like Snooki on every man with a pulse.

 

[OmegaXXII]

Nope, I didn't bother reading any post, though I do agree with what he's saying, it's in Nintendo's best interest to win, otherwise expect the price of the Wii-U to significantly go up, or it could drop but that would be a loss for them as well.

 

[Teran]

Nintendo's share value will go down like Snooki on every man with a pulse.

Loooooooooooool

That was sensational.

 

[Vinylic.]

Just another stupid flank.

It's like an old man suing disney world because he bought coffee from them, went in his car, then the coffee spills on him and loses control of the wheel.

Things like these keep on going. Just like the donkey kong trial.

 

[Orboknown]

Its been said already,but nintendo could definitely use a win in this fight.

 

[theeboredone]

Just another stupid flank.

It's like an old man suing disney world because he bought coffee from them, went in his car, then the coffee spills on him and loses control of the wheel.

Things like these keep on going. Just like the donkey kong trial.

You do realized this actually happened right? Except it was to McDonalds I believe.

 

[Teran]

Yeah there was no label on the coffee saying it was hot, some woman burned herself and won $4million which back then was serious money. This is why you have condescending labels like THIS BEVERAGE IS HOT on your cup.

 

[AltF4]

Please do some research before posting something that is completely and utterly wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants

Stella Liebeck didn't just "get burned by hot coffee". The coffee was so hot that it melted her skin off. She had to go to the hospital where she had to get new skin grafted on. And she did not win $4 million. The case settled for an undisclosed amount, but under $640,000. Which would likely cover little more than the combined legal and court costs.

People unjustly use this as a case of frivolous lawsuits, because they don't know what they're talking about.

 

[Teran]

Well coffee can't be hotter than 100C so uhhh

Still don't think the company should've been liable.

 

[theeboredone]

McDonalds...proudly serving "real" coffee. I mean, I guess I could understand the "warning" label, and I guess that's why the Japanese Console manuals have ridiculous things of "Don't do this". So for whatever reason, if a kid decided to pour orange soda on the Wii, and didn't know it was a "bad thing" because it wasn't on the manual...should Nintendo be sued for that? I just call that stupidity...and holding coffee in between your lap, in a car, is stupid as well.

Back on topic, it's been a month since this article was posted...I'm guessing like any lawsuit, things are slowing down, there are counter lawsuits, and we won't know for a while the results?

 

[AltF4]

Again, just simply reading the wiki page:

"McDonald's required franchisees to serve coffee at 180–190 °F (82–88 °C). At that temperature, the coffee would cause a third-degree burn in two to seven second"

I don't think any reasonable person would expect to get a drink so hot that it would cause 3rd degree burns in as little as two seconds from a McDonalds.

There are many frivolous lawsuits. Maybe even most lawsuits. But this just wasn't one of them. A person was seriously harmed and was awarded reasonable (not millions of dollars) compensation.


The Nintendo patent lawsuit is definitely a trolling attempt, that's how patents work. Any large company has to deal with this, it's a tax on innovation. Look at Google and the patent suits over Android right now.

(Though do be careful not to jump to Nintendo's side in the argument merely because you like games Nintendo creates)

 

[Orboknown]

why on earth does coffee need to be that hot?

 

[Vinylic.]

You do realized this actually happened right? Except it was to McDonalds I believe.

Why do you think i posted this in the first place?
Wait, Mcdonalds? Now it's McDonalds?

Welp, whatever.

Lets go back main subject please.