Topic: Nintendo Wins Against Infringement Claim

[King Bowser Koopa]

Nintendo has won a ruling in yet another plagiarism case.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28315

In a recent International Trade Commission case against Nintendo over technology infringement claims, the judge has ruled in Nintendo's favor.

Ohio-based Motiva LLC had claimed that Nintendo's Wii console infringed on two patents for a game system that tracks the user's position through the controller. The ITC judge, Robert Rogers, however, found that Motiva had not established that it had a market for their inventions in the U.S., which is an integral factor for making such a case.

In an email statement by Rick Flamm, Nintendo of America's general counsel said, â€śNintendo has a long history of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others”.

The judge's finding is subject to review by the U.S. International Trade Commission, and if any investigation goes ahead, it is scheduled to finish the case by March 5.

This is not the first time small companies have filed infringement claims against Nintendo. These cases happen on a semi-regular basis, and just two months ago similar claims were made by companies ThinkOptics and UltimatePointer. 

[Chozo Ghost]

Patent trolls. Its a good thing the judge ruled against them, because imagine what the world would be like if someone could file a patent and then never do anything except sue people and prevent whatever was patented from ever being developed. That was not what the patent system was intended for.

[Ceric]

...
imagine what the world would be like if someone could file a patent and then never do anything except sue people and prevent whatever was patented from ever being developed.
...

Wait that sounds familar...

[Morari]

That sounds very familiar. You'll be seeing a lot more of it too, thanks to America's recent "patent reform". Moving to away from a "first to invent" system in favor of a "first to file" does little more than promote corporate abuse and idea hording.

Just think how much better off the world would be without a corporate-backed patent system. We would all have superior A/C power running everywhere and be driving water-fueled cars.

[Chozo Ghost]

Just think how much better off the world would be without a corporate-backed patent system. We would all have superior A/C power running everywhere and be driving water-fueled cars.

North Korea doesn't have that and yet they don't have those things either.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Just think how much better off the world would be without a corporate-backed patent system. We would all have superior A/C power running everywhere and be driving water-fueled cars.

North Korea doesn't have that and yet they don't have those things either.

NK also doesn't have food or... um... freedom either.

[Ceric]

Just think how much better off the world would be without a corporate-backed patent system. We would all have superior A/C power running everywhere and be driving water-fueled cars.

North Korea doesn't have that and yet they don't have those things either.

NK also doesn't have food or... um... freedom either.

But man can Dear Leader look at things..

[Chozo Ghost]

Just think how much better off the world would be without a corporate-backed patent system. We would all have superior A/C power running everywhere and be driving water-fueled cars.

North Korea doesn't have that and yet they don't have those things either.

NK also doesn't have food or... um... freedom either.

Yeah, but there's no patents either. I'm just saying.

[TJ Spyke]

Without getting into the anti-government/anti-regulation feelings some people have, the reason for the patent reform is because it takes on average 3 years to get a patent in the US now. Patent trolls would exist regardless. If the system were more lax like Morari wants, there would be far FEWER innovations since companies would have less incentive to spend millions of dollars developing technology that they won't control. This is especially a problem with pharmaceuticals, as companies won't spend the money if the patent is already expired or they won't control it.

You just need to make sure companies can't just take out a patent and then only use it to sue others rather than actually make a product.

[ThePerm]

i thought part of the Patent law required you had a working model, that should really be part of it. George Lucas invented the Light Saber in theory, but there has never been a real working model. Gene Roddenberry invented the iPad...

[TJ Spyke]

i thought part of the Patent law required you had a working model, that should really be part of it.

It should, but it's not required (or else you wouldn't see patents for stuff like perpetual motion machines). All you basically need to do is describe how something works to patent it. Apparently it used to be that you had to have a working model, not anymore.

[Chozo Ghost]

George Lucas invented the Light Saber in theory, but there has never been a real working model.

Actually there has, but the problem is it takes massive machinery and a huge amount of electricity to pull it off. That is assuming the lightsaber is hot plasma contained in a magnetic field. So that's been done, but the real challenge is getting that down into a handheld device. Technology keeps getting smaller, so maybe one day it could happen.