Topic: Oh Dear

[Shorty McNostril]

Looks like another controller law suit cropping up.  But this time against nintendo and microsoft.

Link

Do you think this will succeed?

[IceCold]

No way, Nintendo is covered..

[Zach]

apperantly after immersion successfully suing sony, it is the in thing to do to sue for controller issues

Could someone clarify as to what any of those things are so that we can discuss them? (a few of them I kinda get, but still)

[Shorty McNostril]

I would love to clarify but im completly clueless as well. Where is KDR when we need him....

[BlackNMild2k1]

I remember Nintendo not wanting to reveal the controller in any way, shape or form until they had all the patents and copyrights sorted out. I think Nintendo will be fine on this one. As for Microsoft..... they will probably just buy the company and then dissolve them into nothing, but not because they would have to, they would do it just because they can. and therefore problem solved.

[couchmonkey]

Who ARE these guys?  I've never heard of them, do they do any business or do they just sit around patenting controller ideas all day?

There are so many different patents in there it's hard to tell.  As far as rumble technology goes, my impression was that Microsoft liscenced it's rumble from Immersion, and Nintendo nicked but legally modified Immersion's rumble concepts way back in the N64 days.  As for the rest of the stuff, who knows?  Maybe there's something there, but I doubt it.

Patent laws have gone crazy.

[Ceric]

I hope Nintendo wins and counter sues the company into the ground.  They have waited to long if this is legit.  Stuff like this destroys many small companies.  Also hurts innovation.

Did you know that there are companies that buy patent rights for a living?  They just live off the licensing and viciously enforcing the patents.

[mantidor]

how vague can patents be? so if someone patents "3D controller with vibration" it rules out any company from doing it? I think patents can't be that vague, they have to be more accurate describing the tecnology used.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Quote
Originally posted by: mantidor
how vague can patents be? so if someone patents "3D controller with vibration" it rules out any company from doing it? I think patents can't be that vague, they have to be more accurate describing the tecnology used.

If they are as vague as say, then I doubt they would hold up in court, so N and MS would have nothing to worry about.

[AnyoneEB]

mantidor: In theory, a patent covers a specific way of doing or designing something. In order to patent something, you are supposed to be required to include enough information for another company in the field to recreate it based on the information in the patent. That is the point of the patent: to put said information in the public domain in exchange for a limited time (max 20 years) monopoly on it.

For example, a patent for "3D controller with vibration" should have the complete designs for said device and any device obviously based off the information in the patent would be infringing, if the company did not license the patent.

[Stimutacs Addict]

on a side note, who else would like to see a keyboard attachment for the Wii?

[Kairon]

By that you mean USB/Bluetooth keyboard?

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com