Nintendo sued over Touch Screen patent on DS

M

MegaDrive20XX

Segatron Genesis... call me the wizard.
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/09/nintendo-sued-over-ds-touchscreen-patent/


When it comes to controller design, there truly is nothing new under the sun. You don't have to tell that to Nintendo -- the company has been sued (with varying success) over existing patents allegedly relating to the Wii Remote, the Gamecube controller and, uh, the Wii Remote again. Now, GamePolitics is reporting Nintendo is facing another lawsuit over the DS touchscreen.

In his complaint, John R. Martin alleges that the Nintendo DS infringes on his 2003-filed patent for a "Method for Operating an Electronic Machine Using a Pointing Device," (pictured above) which describes, among other things, a touchscreen input system. Nintendo, for its part, formally responded to the charges (PDF link) by saying it does not infringe on the patents, that Martin's ideas are unpatentable, and that the company is protected by something called the "doctrine of prosecution history estoppel." So there!

We're not patent lawyers, but Martin's patent doesn't seem to offer much improvement over the 1993 touchscreen patents he himself references. Still, he'll have his day in court, and we'll be sure to let you know what happens once that day is done.
 
Really, I don't see this going anywhere. He's going to have to sue everybody that's ever made a touch-screen device if he wants to prove that he's not just doing it for cash/because Nintendo has had success with it... I bet he has no care for his patent anyway.
 
In all honesty, if someone saw this getting popular and just patented it just so they could earn money, could you really blame them? They thought of the idea, just didn't follow through with anything. It's the laziest way to make money..lol.
 
Nintendo needs to conduct more research when they make their products. I wonder if they even looked cause this is too much to not only fall for the Gamecube Controllers, the WIimote, and the DS Touch Screen.
 
When you're at the top and making money, there's always going to be people who want to steal a piece of that. I doubt Nintendo stole anything; this is most likely one of those times when someone is just hoping to make a quick buck, so they make an accusation and hope that they get some money out of it.
 
But then it is wrong to assume that NIntendo is the best company in the world and that they are perfect as everybody seems to take sides on. Certainly everytime isnt one in which the little company wants a piece of nintendo (or insert big name company)
 
Starrynite said:
But then it is wrong to assume that NIntendo is the best company in the world and that they are perfect as everybody seems to take sides on. Certainly everytime isnt one in which the little company wants a piece of nintendo (or insert big name company)
Click to expand...

I never said or implied that Nintendo is the best company in the world, or that they were perfect. It's just equally as possible for the claim to be false as it is possible for it to be true.
 
Starrynite said:
I wonder if they even looked cause this is too much to not only fall for the Gamecube Controllers, the WIimote, and the DS Touch Screen.
Click to expand...
Remember how many of those lawsuits ended up being Nintendo losing?
 
Joyling said:
Dude Nintendo never loses a lawsuit.
Click to expand...
Exactly, because they're a massive company and would always make sure they don't violate patents so they can keep all their money.
 
Starrynite said:
Im going to emphatically state how ridiculous the two previous statements sound. !!!!
Click to expand...
A lot less ridiculous than your claims that they 'need to conduct more research when they make their products', even though you haven't looked at the results of any previous lawsuit, and just assume because one is brought up, that it's automatically true.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top