Update: Nintendo ordered to pay Anascape $$$
Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 2:06am by Jake
The two year long Anascape patent infringement suit has finally been settled. Nintendo has been ordered to pay Anascape $21 million to cover their “patent losses”. A snippet of the official statement below…
The jury found that Nintendo infringed on Anascape’s patent while designing its Wii Classic, WaveBird and Gamecube controllers.
Scibettra said Nintendo was pleased no infringement was found with the motion-sensing technology used in its wandlike Wii and Nuncheck controllers, which mimic movements by users in games such as tennis and boxing.
Attorneys for Anascape did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Tyler-based Anascape also sued Microsoft Corp. for patent infringements on game controllers but reached an agreement with the company before the start of the trial against Nintendo, The Lufkin Daily News reported.
Though this could have been a lot worse, Nintendo seems to be cool with the situation. I still can’t believe the judicial system could be this blind toward situations like these (and many others). Again I ask the question: Where is Sony in all this? Not only that, but what company/business doesn’t have some form of “controller” with buttons/switches? Kitchen appliances, retail store scanners/registers, construction equipment, electric tooth brushes, etc. I don’t want to take this too far, but give me a break.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:39 am
Nintendo is apparently appealing and they expect the amount payable to be reduced significantly.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:37 am
What the *BLEEP*?!
I’m sorry, but something is seriously wrong here. How in the world did they win that law suit? I call foul play on this one.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:43 am
The US patent office has gone crazy in the last 10-15 years. Ever since companies started to patent functional aspects of computer code, as opposed to the algorithms themselves, or even gene sequences, the US patent office has lost sight of what is and isn’t a patentable idea.
The US patent office has allowed a US company to patent the genetic code for basmati rice! If patents on naturally occurring organisms are allowed, then we’re in a whole heap of trouble.
Hell in a handcart people, hell in a handcart.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:02 am
for the first time in my life i’m not proud to be from east texas now that i know this company is some where within 30 miles of where i am right now
May 15th, 2008 at 8:10 am
21 million? The patent sitting business is apparently a very profitable one
May 15th, 2008 at 9:17 am
I’m going to fill a patent for “everything that exists & will exist that is not already patented”, seems like a rich idea, don’t you think??? Strange kind of country & justice in the US…
May 15th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Something doesn’t sound right here. What is so special about these ubiquitous controller designs that Nintendo was sued for? How is the wavebird any different from what Sony and Microsoft still use today
?
May 15th, 2008 at 10:13 am
I sense Sony pay tee to d this..meh…just me but, geesh…this is insane.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:56 am
“ggeorge759 says…
May 15th, 2008 at 7:02 am
for the first time in my life i’m not proud to be from east texas now that i know this company is some where within 30 miles of where i am right now”
I’m originally from Longview, TX, just north of Tyler. This is an insult and embarrassment to all of us from Texas. It’s a load of bullshit (something this state specializes in as it is) and completely frivolous. Anascape are nothing but patent squatting trolls and I can’t believe any judge would go along with this (unless the son of a bitch were bribed). Nintendo’s controller designs are a direct progressive upgrade from their own previous designs, using components and interfaces that NINTENDO INVENTED DECADES AGO. This just pisses me off to no end. And the whole part about not suing Sony is just too damned suspicious. You’d think that’d be some kind of really big RED FLAG…..
May 15th, 2008 at 11:59 am
On top of it all, I can’t even find a website for Anascape. Are they even a real company?
May 15th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I’m surprised none of the other major sites are covering this, its pretty big news. Something isn’t right here.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
That’s because most of the public doesn’t care about this. Patent lawsuits happen all the time and to be quite frank; most of the public has a lot of disdain for corperations, lawyers and judges anyway so they don’t have much sympathy for pretty much anyone involved in the case.
As for this case itself…I only have one thing to say: Paging Sean Malstrom to Infendo; you are needed here. Hey; he claims to know business law. Maybe he can explain this because I’m really in no position to comment on something that I have no experience in. This case is such a mess that I don’t know where to start.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I normally don’t pay too much to the legal side of things, but this court ruling is BS.
They have to pay fines for the classic controller (an snes controller with badly offset face buttons and two funny analog sticks), the gamecube controller which has only been known to the world since 00, and released in 01, and the wavebird which is a wireless gamecube controller without rumble.
I thought the company would catch Nintendo on their nunchuck since it’s shaped similarly to their hand pointer, that was about it. They shouldn’t have to pay shit on those other counts. If that’s the case, should nearly every controller manufacturer be paying out to Nintendo, or in effect these guys now?
July 9th, 2008 at 3:52 am
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