News Nintendo and Sony sued over controller patent

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/01/11/nintendo_and_sony_sued_over_controller_patent/1

It's lawsuit time again and this time Nintendo and Sony are being sued by a company which claims the patent to the controller software.

 

Sounds more like they want to go after the bluetooth spec in general (so that'd be SE not Sony or Nintendo), no way will this standup...

 

no way will that stand! Nintendo and Sony have to much to lose so they will probably throw everything they have at the case, or at least the part that stops them from making these controllers!

 

You forget how broken the us patent system is... I could easily see this going through. My prediction Sony will toss a few million for exclusive deal and back the little company in court forcing Nintendo to redesign their console... if you can't beat them.. cheat. TBH i would be quite poetic justice given thats what Nintendo and MS done to Sony over the rumble pack.

 

You mean exactly as MS did with the force feedback case a few months back? I seem to recall they settled with the patent-holder and paid them a large sum of money, a significant proportion of which constituted a loan to cover the company's legal fees in a suit against Sony, repayable out of any settlement or damages paid by Sony! Genius!

 

They didn't do anything- Immersion sued Sony because they were the only one out of the 3 not paying royalties for using the rumble technology.

 

Immersion is owned by Nintendo isn't it? If not my bad but i remember reading that some where.

 

I have to say I think they're money grubbers of the worst kind regardless of wether it turns out they have a leg to stand on!

 

But Immersion was backed in the Sony suit by MS: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/06/20/microsoft_sues_immersion/1

 

I really got to get in this patent business and file as many as I can. Easy money

 

So how does the xbox 360 wireless work then?
I would be pretty shocked if this went through, the patent is no where near specific enough imo. Sigh...

 

I think tommorrow I should patent a method of communiction between humans that uses vocal chords to produce sounds which are amplified using the mouth and transmit sounds waves to other humans. Then take an injuction out against anyone speaking.

Some Patents are far too vauge and should be cancelled as time goes on. Maybe originally the patent only covered a small area but as time went on and technology advanced it covered a wider area, further than a patent should.

 

i thought long ago the idea of a patent was that you had a specific solution to a specific problem. Not something like "a process to transmit data through electronic signals" this is just getting ridiculous.

 

"covers a method for connecting devices to a system and sorting their inputs by means of hardware identification numbers tied to each transmission"
What about a MAC addres? They could start sueing every network company in the world. I really hate these patents, its meant to protect stuff, not to make money of it.

 

Thats what I was thinking, that is a very vague patent and could apply to almost anything electronic.

 

Sounds like they are going for the wireless world in general.

Crazy sob's.

 

That might actually be a defense. I've heard that lack of prior infringement makes future infringement harder to prosecute... the same reason Disney will go after a small child day care center that painted the mouse on the wall... not that they expect to even recoup costs but so when a major infringer comes along they have standing to go after them.

On the other hand it also sounds like the Submarine Patent ploy. http://www.researchoninnovation.org/WordPress/?p=6

 

Surely then, this also covers microsoft's wireless controller, which uses part of the ring to indicate which pad is which? (instead of an actual number)

imo, the whole patent system is flawed for letting such stupid things get through.

I remember reading one not so long back about Microsoft Patenting on screen feedback on presentations - hold on, that covers pen on old style projector too? half the time they are that vague that they don't mean anything and theres no real thing to protect.

 

again? good luck beating those two companies, lol

 

No one is that lucky....