Nintendo hit with $30M judgment in patent case on 3DS screen

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/13/nintendo-hit-with-30m-judgment-in-patent-case-on-3ds-screen/

Nintendo hit with $30M judgment in patent case on 3DS screen
March 13, 2013 8:40 PMWritten by Dean TakahashiA federal jury in New York on Wednesday decided that Nintendo infringed an inventor’s patent on glasses-free 3D displays on the Japanese company’s handheld 3DS game system.The jury awarded $30.2 million in compensatory damages to Seijiro Tomita, a Japanese inventor who patented a system for producing 3D images on a screen with requiring the user to wear cumbersome 3D glasses.Last month, Tomita’s attorney Joe Diamante told the jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that Nintendo infringed the technology created by Tomita, a former Sony employee. Nintendo’s attorney argued otherwise. Tomita sued Nintendo in 2011.Nintendo has not yet offered a comment.

I'm really getting sick of these stupid shitty patents.
It's not like Nintendo's stealing fucking blueprints, why shouldn't they be able to use a certain type of technology because somebody did it first?

they can, they just have to ask permission and pay a license fee.In this case I agree with the judgement because the patent is owned by an individual who deserves credit for his invention. When its companies suing each other I tend not to agree because thats when patent warfare stunts progress.

Replying to #3

I agree here.

Why didn't the guy sue Sharp? They are the ones who supplied Nintendo with the screens, Ninty didn't make them.

Replying to #5

This is gonna be a toughie, y'see currently penal law on most countries operates under the theory of objective imputation, it means that on the chain of crimes there is only a few or one you can sue, nintendo was comercializing with the invention, which falls as the first target of the theory.

Rayder · #5Why didn't the guy sue Sharp? They are the ones who supplied Nintendo with the screens, Ninty didn't make them.

sharp produced them to nintendo supplied specifications. Nintendo are the ones violating the patent.

well what about us stealing games for platforms off the internet, does that make us any different Loonylion?

patents != copyright

zking0games · #8well what about us stealing games for platforms off the internet, does that make us any different Loonylion?

It's not like we stole them.
We didn't make the dumps or anything like that.The ROMs simply come into our possession, and we host them.
Simple as that.

And to cover all the legal fines game companies like Nintendo & EA pass on the burden to their consumers by over pricing their stuff....

They are the ones who supplied Nintendo with the screens, Ninty didn't make them.