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Nintendo Loses Controller Patent Lawsuit

Posted by kdawson on from the break-out-the-brain-computer-interface dept.

kryogen1x alerts us to coverage at 1up indicating that Nintendo controller may soon become scarce — Nintendo lost in court to Anascape over analog sticks in their Wii and GameCube controllers.This isn't the first time the big manufacturers have been targeted in lawsuits involving features in their controllers. From the article: "The lawsuit concerns the analog sticks in the Classic Controller and GameCube controllers, which Texas-based Anascape Ltd. claims to hold a patent on that Nintendo violated. The court has ruled in favor of Anascape, and US District Judge Ron Clark has rejected Nintendo's request for a new trial. As a result, Clark said he will put a ban on the sale of the controllers (which includes sales of GameCube systems) starting tomorrow, July 23, unless Nintendo posts a bond or puts royalties into an escrow account."

2 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. Patent Office penalties by Stephen+Ma · · Score: 5, Interesting
    This looks like another trivial patent. Whatever happened to the old "non-obvious" test for patentability?

    Here is one way to fix the problem: let the Patent Office be heavily penalized for every patent overturned by the courts. If the Office goes bankrupt as a result of its own negligence, too bad, let it die. Congress can always start a new Office with completely different management.

    At the moment, the Patent Office is too unaccountable; there is little penalty for doing shoddy work. The threat of bankruptcy might concentrate a few minds over there.

  2. Re:I couldn't find info about Anascape by JaxShores · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is exciting. Brad Armstrong is my good friend Alex's uncle. I actually met him two months ago at a graduation. Brad is a very friendly and interesting guy. Alex says he's been an inventor most of his life and has been screwed out of a lot of patients. He invented the joystick sensitivity function found in Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft controllers. He recently won a lawsuit against the two latter corporations, and now he finally won the third. Interesting... he's now rich, but not as rich as Nintendo.