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Many of you might remember this post... Anascape to sue Nintendo and Microsoft where everyone thought nintendo can't lose and this other company is only out for a quick buck well...



Nintendo ordered to pay $21 million for patent infringement


LUFKIN, Texas (AP) — Nintendo of America Inc. was ordered to pay a small East Texas gaming company $21 million Wednesday for infringing on a patent while designing controllers for its popular Wii and GameCube systems.

A federal jury found in favor of Anascape Ltd. in the lawsuit that was originally filed in 2006. Nintendo spokesman Charlie Scibetta said the company will seek an appeal and expects the court to reduce the award "significantly."

The jury found that Nintendo infringed on Anascape's patent while designing its Wii Classic, WaveBird and Gamecube controllers.

Scibettra said Nintendo was pleased no infringement was found with the motion-sensing technology used in its wandlike Wii and Nuncheck controllers, which mimic movements by users in games such as tennis and boxing.

Attorneys for Anascape did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Tyler-based Anascape also sued Microsoft Corp. for patent infringements on game controllers but reached an agreement with the company before the start of the trial against Nintendo, The Lufkin Daily News reported.

Microsoft said in a statement that terms of the settlement reached May 1 were confidential.

Link 1: The Associated Press: Nintendo hit with $21 million patent infringement

Link 2: (for more proof) Nintendo ordered to pay $21 million for patent infringement - Joystiq

so Nintendo did STEAL the patent...

lol wow Fanboy much?

it's not the "Look" of the controller that nintendo infringed upon it's the inside working of the controller...that it infringed upon...read links next time before you respond...that way you can make a NON fanboy remark

I read the links. They didn't go into much detail as to what about the controllers was an violation. Could you tell me what is so different about Nintendo's and Microsoft's controllers from Playstation's controllers.
Forgive my ignorance.

...believe me...once this is all said and done the fine won't nearly be 21 mill...money talks and b***s*** walks...and Nintendo has plenty of dough to make this a more suitable situation for them!! >..<

it's not an ignorant question or anything man...it's actually a Great question...

well really the differences between the three companies controllers are lots of things that you might not even notice...

look at the Direction pads on each system...

Nintendo -
See how it's solid and has the arrows...EVERY nintendo controller has that design

Sony -
See the space between the direction pad...can't be solid because Nintendo has the patent on the solid

MIcrosoft -
see this one is solid but has the outer circle around it...so it's still "Different" then Nintendo's patent but similar same with Sony's

Now here is an inside look at the controllers

Microsoft -

Sony -

Nintendo -

and there's lots of smaller stuff that's patented as well...

could be anything from how many pieces of solder a company uses to what brand of chip inside the controller...

Your right they will probably have to pay maybe half or even less of that 21 Million...

but no matter how much they have to end up paying...still doesn't hide the fact that Nintendo stole a patent and claimed it as thier own...

And Microsoft stole too. They just settled it outside of courts. Just wanted to add that. I know you probably just forgot or left it out for some reason.

I didn't forget that fact...I was just mainly talking bout nintendo because in the original post i posted...I'd say about 90 - 95% of the people who posted in it said that "there's no way Nintendo can lose this" and "the other company was only out to try to make a name and some money for themselves"...so I was just talking about nintendo because for some reason most people in here think Nintendo can't and don't do anything wrong...

and Yes MS stole the patent as well...

and let's not forget that Sony lost a 128 Million lawsuit for the rumble in the PS2 controller...

every company steals, they just hope they don't get caught