http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/14/ex-midway-guy-suing-nintendo-for-wiimote-controls-has-himself-s/ Unlike the previous vague lawsuit this one might have more ground to run on. There is video of this Ex-Midway employee using what seems to be a similar controller setup to that of Wii on Ready 2 Rumble for the Dreamcast (Atleast I assume it's a Dreamcast).
Patents piss me off sometimes. Did you know that any game featuring ghost vehicles has to pay a royalty to the makers of OutRun, who patented the idea aaages back?
I do and dont agree with the patent system. On the one hand I think that without there would be more competition to make products better, which would really help the consumer. but on the other hand, if someone makes something, and it gets ripped off, the first person should get something for it.
how could this guy try to have any credibility when he films himself playing dreamcast in boxers ... wtf
Yes but then again, it would be impossible for half decent inventors to get anywhere in life. They will just invent something good, go to a company who will say no but then take the idea and develop it themselves because the other person doesn't have a patent.
What do you mean he's making it up? Please refrain from spewing such nonsense. The Wiimote is NOT the first controller to use motion sensing - it's just the first one to make it an integral part of gameplay on the console.
Apparently Engadget (or their source) mis reported the situation and Patrick (the ex-Midway employee) is not sueing.
Not yet, if Nintendo don't give him some cash, I bet he'll sue. And the thing is, he will win, it's nearly an exact replica of the Wii controlers. The whole point of a patent is to show that you made something at that time etc, the video evidence is enough imo.
So it's like...oh look they are using a motion thing in their controller so lets do ours that way. Noone really told them how to make it though, they made it themselves, they marketed it themselves, the took the risk to make it available to the world wide market. Now a ***** comes up and says ..oh i didn't take advantage of that idea, I didn't invest money to it ...so Nintendo..you give me money because I was a total idiot and I want to take advantage of my thought even if I didn't implemented myself. That's lame in every sense. When we are talking about hardware there are no ways to steal a patent unless you got the plans for it and make an exact copy of the mechanism with a different shell...stealing the idea is not equal to stealing the patent. Same goes for Nintendo and Sony (sisaxis). please correct me if i'm wrong
As Engadget have said he's not sueing as Midway, who owned his patent due to him being a Midway employee and using their facilities, sold the patent to Nintendo. He just wanted to be credited with a great idea. Even if he wanted to sue he couldn't as a he didn't own the patent himself and be Nintendo bought all. So everything is good.
