Nintendo paid tens of millions of dollars for patent infringement, and was sued by another company in court-Industry News-Shenzhen deep trust patent Agency Co., LTD

News Updates

NEWS CENTER

Related News

There is currently no data available

Home

Nintendo paid tens of millions of dollars for patent infringement, and was sued by another company in court

Release Time：

2022-09-17

A lawsuit that lasted for nearly four years has finally reached a verdict. Not many people may still remember a patent lawsuit in 2013: iLife sued Nintendo Wii and Wii U's motion control for infringing on six of the company's patents, and requested compensation of up to US$144 million (sold Each Wii pays it a royalty fee of $4). Unknowingly, this stalking has been going on for nearly four years.

In 2013, iLife claimed that the purpose of inventing its patented motion sensing technology was to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and falls in the elderly through monitoring. However, the patent was stolen by Nintendo and used to produce motion sensing controls for Wii and Wii U consoles. device. Nintendo's lawyers have argued that the plaintiff's patent information "lacks sufficient written description" and that the two have "very different application directions" for motion sensing technology. The Texas Federal Court in the United States announced on September 3 that the plaintiff iLife Technologies had won the lawsuit, and the defendant Nintendo must pay the plaintiff US$10 million in compensation. According to Glixel, Nintendo has responded to this, stating that it is not satisfied with the verdict, insists on the plaintiff’s patent invalidity, and will launch an appeal.

Why is it said that misfortune never comes alone for Nintendo? It turns out that in mid-August, the American company Gamevice filed a lawsuit against Nintendo in the Los Angeles federal court, accusing Nintendo of plagiarizing the design of Nintendo Switch from its own "Wikipad" product design (US9126119, a game controller that combines a computing device with a flexible bridge section). Demanding to stop the sale of Switch consoles and compensate for infringement fees. Although, Nintendo declined to comment on the case. But why would they agree if their flagship product might be banned? A lawsuit is inevitable. This lawsuit has not yet been dealt with, and the verdict has already been issued. It is true that people are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being strong. Now Nintendo is in danger.

Although Nintendo is not as famous as technology companies such as Apple and Google, as one of the "three royal families" in the contemporary gaming industry, it faces competitors such as Sony and Microsoft, and its patent applications and layout are equally huge. However, every successful technology company is difficult to escape from the troubles of patent disputes.

In fact, since Nintendo launched the revolutionary motion-sensing game console Wii at the end of 2006, it has been involved in an increasing number of patent disputes and lawsuits. Especially in 2011, when the successful launch of Nintendo 3DS pushed Nintendo's stock price to its highest point, its role as a defendant in patent infringement also reached its highest point.

Through inquiries, it was found that Nintendo has encountered a total of 36 patent infringement lawsuits in recent years, and 6 are still under trial. Among the 30 patent infringement lawsuits that have been tried, Nintendo has only won 4 patent disputes.

In addition to the two cases mentioned earlier in this article, in February 2013, the New York District Court of the United States ruled that Nintendo had to pay US$30.2 million in compensation for infringing the "naked-eye 3D" patent technology held by former Sony employee Seijiro Tomita. Although Nintendo appealed in the hope of changing the verdict, on December 11, 2013, the New York District Court once again ruled in favor of Tomita, requiring Nintendo to compensate at 1.82% of the wholesale price of each 3DS until the sale was stopped, and it also needed to pay 24 Referee fees of $1,231;

In 2014, the High Court of England and Wales ruled that Nintendo had infringed a number of Philips patents in its use of Wii Remotes and related game consoles. Nintendo needs to pay high compensation to Philips.

In recent years, the patent disputes that Nintendo has encountered are not just as simple as the design and game controllers we talked about earlier. The patents proposed by the plaintiffs cover many aspects, including the processor functions of game consoles, somatosensory device implementation mechanisms, and image processing. They cover almost all necessary technologies for Nintendo products.

In addition to filing patent applications themselves, how to successfully file patent infringement lawsuits has become Nintendo's biggest headache now. What we have learned from Nintendo’s experience is that filing a patent application is the first and most important step. Otherwise, once a patent infringement case occurs, you will be in a very disadvantageous position. (Source: Focus on Fish)

More intellectual property information and services

Follow the official subscription account of [Shenxin Intellectual Property] on the code

Follow the official service account of [Shentrust Intellectual Property Service Platform] on the code