Philips Files Lawsuit Against Nintendo, Looking for Wii U Ban in America

[MentalIlness]

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/0...st-nintendo-looking-for-wii-u-ban-in-america/

Electronics company Philips has filed a patent lawsuit against Nintendo which charges the Japanese video game maker with infringing on its patent rights. If it succeeds, it will be looking at a total sales ban of the Wii U in America, which obviously won’t bode well for Nintendo.

The patents involved in the lawsuit are about navigation through a menu via “pointing device,” or exactly what the Wii Remote’s function was with Nintendo’s previous console interface. Other infringed patents include those which translate real-world actions into video game commands. How this relates to the Wii U I have no idea, but it sounds more like a problem with the Wii console than with Nintendo’s current platform.

“Philips has engaged in the field of applied electronics and has conducted research in areas relating to visual representation of spatial processes and to automatic processes,” the lawsuit against Nintendo reads.

“The present patents-in-suit stem from these fields of research and development and claims protection for an interactive system for which a user can remotely control devices in an intuitive manner. Such intuitive remote control mechanisms are used in present-day home video game consoles.”
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Strangely, Philips also acknowledges that Nintendo has been using the motion remotes since the beginning of the Wii’s lifetime nearly eight years ago, but Philips is more concerned with a period of November and December in 2011 in which it approached Nintendo about the infringement and the company did not react the way it wanted.

How does it sound? Using a pointer device to navigate menus is what the Wii does, but Nintendo has been doing this for quite some time. Sounds to me like someone is just teething with frustration over its own inability to make a competent Zelda game, but I’m not sure how this will play out. If Philips should have its way, Nintendo will not be selling any Wii U consoles in America, so in other words, not much will really change, will it?

 

[Dug]

This is done on TV's with remotes, any tablet with a pen, Sony's move, those arcade games with guns, etc.

Being able to select menu's on screen with a pointing device should not be a patent.

 

[smackababy]

Wii U banned in the US? Why bother? The Wii U isn't selling any units in the US. >_<

 

[purbeast0]

uh oh next up is microsoft getting sued because you can use your hands as a pointing device to navigate menus!

or uh oh, maybe they will sue the entire populations because we are the ones using our fingers???!!!?

 

[AstroManLuca]

I think some lawyers got bored, or maybe one of their kids just hit college age.

 

[smackababy]

I think some lawyers got bored, or maybe one of their kids just hit college age.

"Sarah got accepted to Harvard? Drat! Better start a law suit to pay $50k a year so she can sleep around and learn nothing while getting an art history degree."

 

[TeknoBug]

Everyone's jumping on the patent bandwagon after seeing what Apple has pulled out of their hat over the past few years. Yeah the pointing thing... just shouldn't be a patent, maybe the UI used with the pointing device but not the function itself.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

This is done on TV's with remotes, any tablet with a pen, Sony's move, those arcade games with guns, etc.

Being able to select menu's on screen with a pointing device should not be a patent.

Perhaps you should read the claims of the patents in question, which are linked below:

U.S. Patent No 6285379

U.S Patent No 8537231

By my reading the claims do not appear to read on a remote.

You should also realize that the '379 patent claims priority back to 1995 (no tablets back then, move, etc. Light guns (ala duck hunt) are not read on by the claims IMO.

The '231 patent claims priority back to 2002, which is still before most tablets, the move, etc.

FWIW some of the claims of the patents in question may now be found to claim patent ineligible subject matter in view of the CLS v. Alice decision that was handed down by the SCOTUS today.

 

[Red Squirrel]

This is why I hate patents. Nintendo worked hard on making this and spent lot of money and resources like any other company would with any other product, but because of some silly very specific patent they lose it all. Patents don't protect the people that worked hard for something, they just make their work illegal and force them to stop. Now imagine if Nintendo was a small company just scraping by, they'd pretty much have to declare bankruptcy at this point because of this. I suppose they could recall the remotes and replace with a standard controller but that would still cost lot of money. And if people don't voluntarily give up their superior controllers, do you start to sue individual users too?

I imagine they'll still be able to sell it outside the US but that's still a pretty big market to lose and the owner could always be extradited and sued anyway if they keep selling it outside the US. Depends how far the US wants to go against them.

And how in the world is this a threat to Philips anyway? Does Philips even have this tech in any of their products, and eve if they do, the Wii is still not any kind of threat unless Sony has a Wii rip off console that nobody heard about.

 

[iluvdeal]

Perhaps Philips is still sore over the shelved SNES-CDROM and their own failure with the CD-i? Sad they need to resort to patent trolling to make money in the video game business.

 

[master_shake_]

philips is still around?

fade away you relic. no one cares about you anymore.

 

[MongGrel]

I haven't had a console in over 20 years have at it in court guys

philips is still around?

fade away you relic. no one cares about you anymore.

That too.

 

[Sulaco]

I haven't had a console in over 20 years have at it in court guys

Yet you felt compelled to post in a Console specific forum. Fascinating.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

philips is still around?

fade away you relic. no one cares about you anymore.

Been in a hospital lately? The company is going strong. At least in that sector.

https://www.google.com/search?q=phi...voDACw&sqi=2&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAw&biw=1746&bih=865

 

[iluvdeal]

Bad news for Nintendo, U.K. court ruled Nintendo infringed on two of Philips' patents in its Wii and Wii U consoles:

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...loses-wii-patent-lawsuit-to-philips-what.aspx

 

[ImpulsE69]

Well now....this could officially now get interesting..,

 

[mmntech]

philips is still around?

fade away you relic. no one cares about you anymore.

They make a lot of personal and professional healthcare products. LED lighting technology is a big thing for them now too. For consumer electronics, they still make TVs, projectors, and DVD/BD players. Though they're certainly nowhere near as popular as the Korean brands.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

i remember their crappy cd-i and its horrible controllers

 

[mmntech]

i remember their crappy cd-i and its horrible controllers

I didn't know anybody who had the CD-I growing up. Didn't even know it existed until the AVGN did a couple shows on it a few years ago.

The market got flooded with consoles from companies who had no idea what they were doing. There's a reason why Nintendo is the only surviving hardware maker from the fourth generation. Games sell systems, not specs or gimmicks.

 

[ibex333]

If Philips should have its way, Nintendo will not be selling any Wii U consoles in America, so in other words, not much will really change, will it?

This.

 

[toughtrasher]

What the **** is a Phillips?

They're just jealous Nintendo is doing things with it's company.

 

[darkswordsman17]

What I think is funny are the people defending Nintendo. You do know Nintendo's done stuff like this (see the patent on the cross shaped d-pad for instance).

That finally ran out in 2005 apparently, although I don't know why we've still been getting such bad quality d-pads then (One's is improved thanks in part to them being able to use the cross shaped design, and Sony's has been ok although its always been a bit mushy to me personally).

 

[mmntech]

What I think is funny are the people defending Nintendo. You do know Nintendo's done stuff like this (see the patent on the cross shaped d-pad for instance).

That finally ran out in 2005 apparently, although I don't know why we've still been getting such bad quality d-pads then (One's is improved thanks in part to them being able to use the cross shaped design, and Sony's has been ok although its always been a bit mushy to me personally).

I haven't been impressed with Nintendo's recent d-pads. The one on the DS/3DS doesn't seem to feel nearly as nice as the original GameBoy IMO.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I'd say that Sony surpassed Nintendo for the better D-Pad.

Still, why do we care about a D-Pad all that much anymore? Aside from going through menus it's basically unused these days.

 

[mmntech]

I'd say that Sony surpassed Nintendo for the better D-Pad.

Still, why do we care about a D-Pad all that much anymore? Aside from going through menus it's basically unused these days.

It's nice to use on PC with emulators. Especially since those old games weren't made with analogue controls in mind.