Nintendo Controllers Face Retail Ban

[Dante]

Nintendo Co., the world's biggest maker of handheld game machines, is facing a ban on U.S. sales of some controllers for its Wii and GameCube systems after it lost a bid to overturn a $21 million patent-infringement verdict.

 

U.S. District Judge Ron Clark in Lufkin, Texas, rejected Nintendo's request for a new trial in the case won by closely held Anascape Ltd. of Tyler, Texas. He said that he would stop sales of the Wii Classic Controller, WaveBird controller and Nintendo GameCube controller. His ban will be put on hold while Nintendo appeals the verdict to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to Anascape lawyer Doug Cawley.

 

The judge, scheduled to issue his ban order tomorrow, said Nintendo will have to post a bond or put royalties in an escrow account to avoid the halt, said Cawley, of McKool Smith in Dallas. The opinion denying a new trial was issued July 18, the same day as the hearing on Anascape's request for an order blocking sales of products found to infringe its patent.

 

``Nintendo was already planning to appeal this case to the Federal Circuit court,'' Nintendo spokesman Charlie Scibetta said in an e-mailed statement. ``The recent ruling by the trial court does not impact that decision.''

 

Scibetta said Nintendo will ``immediately appeal'' once Clark issues his order and post a bond. The company no longer makes the GameCube or WaveBird controllers, and ``is free to continue selling the Wii Classic Controller'' pending the appeal, he said. The Wii replaced the GameCube as the company's main home video-game system.

 

Nunchuk Controller Excluded

 

Not all controllers were found to infringe the patent. Jurors agreed with Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo that the rectangular Wii remote, when not used with the Wii Classic, and the ``Nunchuk'' controller attached to the remote don't violate the patent at the heart of the case. The rectangular Wii remote is the one that comes with the console.

 

Anascape's patent covers certain configuration of the remote to control six types of motions at the same time. The inventor, Brad Armstrong, spent years developing game controllers in his garage after ``he became fascinated with computers including video games'' in the late 1970s, Cawley said.

 

Cawley said he argued last week that Anascape was entitled to a ban on the Nintendo controllers because Anascape wants to enter the market and Nintendo has ``clogged the channel.'' Sony Corp., maker of the PlayStation game system, licensed the patent in 2004 and Microsoft Corp., maker of the Xbox 360, settled lawsuit claims on May 1, just before the trial began.

 

Nintendo said it didn't use Anascape's technology and challenged the patent's validity.

 

`Sufficient Evidence'

 

``The trial record contains sufficient evidence to support the jury's finding'' against Nintendo, Clark said in the July 18 ruling. He also said the damage award was ``supported by substantial evidence'' and denied Nintendo's request to reduce the amount it was told to pay.

 

The Wii, a machine that plays games by swinging a motion- sensing controller like a bat, tennis racket or other item, overtook Microsoft's Xbox 360 as the leading console in U.S. homes among the latest generation of video-game players.

 

As of last month, U.S. consumers had purchased almost 10.9 million Wii consoles since the player was introduced in November 2006, passing the Xbox 360, which began selling in 2005, research firm NPD Group Inc. said last week.

 

www.bloomberg.com

[Jamba]

Can somone who can be arsed to read it post a summary pls.

[Guest Maase]

I sum it up:

 

Nintendo is not screwed..

 

That's all it matters to me ^^

[M-PG71C]

Always sueing the successful and riding on its coattails, such a shame.

 

Screwed? No, but if the appeal is denied then they'll be forced to pay royalities or a bond. At least that is from what I understand at a quick glimpse.

[D-Day]

Always sueing the successful and riding on its coattails, such a shame.

Screwed? No, but if the appeal is denied then they'll be forced to pay royalities or a bond. At least that is from what I understand at a quick glimpse.

 

You beat me to it! Was going to pretty much say the same thing. But that is how a lot of smaller companies would operate, they aren't large enough, so if they see an infringement in anyway on them (especially if it may 'potentially' block them in some way because it is a large company) then court is the result. Money is the issue.

Well I started reading it, then I skimmed the rest but I think you have it spot on.

Couldn't help but laugh when they said the Wii remote is the rectangle one that comes with the console.

[Aimless]

Can somone who can be arsed to read it post a summary pls.

Yet another patent troll heads back under their bridge to count their ill-gotten gains. The US patent system is still utter shite.

[M-PG71C]

You beat me to it! Was going to pretty much say the same thing. But that is how a lot of smaller companies would operate, they aren't large enough, so if they see an infringement in anyway on them (especially if it may 'potentially' block them in some way because it is a large company) then court is the result. Money is the issue.

Well I started reading it, then I skimmed the rest but I think you have it spot on.

Couldn't help but laugh when they said the Wii remote is the rectangle one that comes with the console.

 

Heh, I was thinking the same. At least it will appeal to the casual reader! : peace:

 

@ Aimless

 

I know a number of lawyers that would argue that all patent systems, especially Western countries, are full of shit.

 

Of course, the one that garners the most press is America but hell, we just like sueing the each-other. It's like a game!

[Cube]

I still don't get this at all, especially as the GameCube controller existed before the patent.

[Zechs Merquise]

I still don't get this at all, especially as the GameCube controller existed before the patent.

 

Just what I was thinking!

[S.C.G]

Seriously why can't Anusache just leave Nintendo alone >> it's not as if they even make many (if any) GC pads anymore and why ban the classic controller? just makes no sense, meh oh well looks like sales of Retro-port adapters are gonna increase if this happens, or all remaining stock will be bought out completely and GC / classic controllers will become stupidly rare.

[Deathjam]

Seriously why can't Anusache just leave Nintendo alone >> it's not as if they even make many (if any) GC pads anymore and why ban the classic controller? just makes no sense, meh oh well looks like sales of Retro-port adapters are gonna increase if this happens, or all remaining stock will be bought out completely and GC / classic controllers will become stupidly rare.

 

In america.

[Tellyn]

Anascape aren't even in the market?! So what, they just observed the success of controllers such as the GC and PS2 pads, then patented the controller technology and sued Nintendo? *sigh*

[The fish]

Do you think, under the current screwed up US legal system we could collectively sue Anascape for causing us "unnecessary distress and concern"?

 

Actually, that's a stupid question - of course we can!

[Hellfire]

Nintendo facing patent lawsuit over DS

Illinois man claims to have touched first.

 

By Ben Silverman

 

Thanks to its innovative design and wealth of fantastic games, the Nintendo DS has scrambled to the top of the handheld gaming war, making the hardware wizards at Nintendo the darlings of the games industry.

 

But what if they don't hold the patent on the touchy tech?

 

As reported by video game blog Gamepolitics, John R. Martin has filed a complaint alleging that he owns the patent on the system's lauded touch screen. While the patent was updated in August of 2005 -- a full six months after Nintendo launched the DS -- it was originally filed a decade earlier in 1995.

 

The patent seems to cover the key input ingredient of Nintendo's popular handheld, citing "an improved method of operating a touch screen on a CRT or ICD computer screen [that] uses finger release as input registering" in "an electronic game device system [which] is switchable between an amusement mode and a gaming or gambling mode and is useful for vehicles such as airplanes or boats..."Sounds a little like the DS to us, minus the gambling bit.

 

SEE PICS

 

Nintendo, however, doesn't see the connection -- the company has responded by requesting that the entire suit be summarily dismissed.

 

This isn't Nintendo's first scrape with patent infringement. Earlier this year the company coughed up $21 million to tech company Anascape over several Nintendo game controllers, including their famous Wavebird, widely considered the first legitimate wireless game controller.

 

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/nintendo-facing-patent-lawsuit-over-ds/1226062

 

This is just ridiculous, they should call Yamauchi so he would kill all these guys.

[Emasher]

You know, I don't think I can see the connection either.

[ShadowV7]

People are freaking idiots. I hope the folk that think they can win a lawsuit by stupid means get a firm slap on the face by someone

 

I'm gonna sue Nintendo for X, Sony for Y. People do anything for some money...

[Tyson]

Do you think, under the current screwed up US legal system we could collectively sue Anascape for causing us "unnecessary distress and concern"?

 

Actually, that's a stupid question - of course we can!

 

I'll get the plane tickets.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

I plan to file a patent for three-dimensional holographic imagery, 'cause I know it'll have something to do with light. Rays of light to be specific.

 

[/sarcasm]

 

See the point?

[darkjak]

Do you think, under the current screwed up US legal system we could collectively sue Anascape for causing us "unnecessary distress and concern"?

 

Actually, that's a stupid question - of course we can!

 

I'd rather have them sued for slowing down the evolution of the gaming industry by going to court and having shit banned all the time.

[Emasher]

Why not sue them for both?

[darkjak]

Why not sue them for both?

 

Hell, let's sue them for everything in the book, let's start with the crucifiction of Jesus Christ, and then continue to the concentration camps in WWII, then go to the crash of the games industry, and then for my dad's cat being run over a few years ago. Nintendo should earn a few bucks out of it.

[Emasher]

We should give Nintendo the money only if they use it to make hardcore games.

[M-PG71C]

Hardcore games? Fuck yeah, here comes Brain Age Wii!