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Joystick Port Patented, Now the Lawsuit

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the no-no-the-system-is-fine dept.

Panaqqa writes "It appears that Fenner Investments, a Texas based patent troll, is at it again. This time, they are suing Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo for infringing a patent they hold on joystick ports. Perhaps they felt they needed a "Plan B" now that their lawsuit against Juniper Networks, Nokia, Cisco, Alcatel and Ericsson is not going so well."

2 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. Patented in 2001? by ElleyKitten · · Score: 0, Redundant

    How the hell did they patent joystick ports when systems with joystick ports had been manufactured and sold for more than 25 years before they even filed?

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    "What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
  2. Stupid... by advocate_one · · Score: 0, Redundant

    This method of digitising a position has been basic instrumentation technology for decades... It's obvious to one skilled in the art... fer hecks sake, my old XT had a joystick card that did this RC timebase measuring thing... and that was back in the 80's I think I might still have the joystick card in my bits box... mind you, I don't think there's been any old 8-bit card interface compatible motherboards made for ages either...

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.