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[Poor GRIMES]

A jury in Dallas, Texas today awarded $10 million to iLife after finding that Nintendo of America infringed on iLife's motion-sensing accelerometer technology which the company used in the its Wii Remote controllers.

The jury began deliberating on the federal lawsuit at the end of the day yesterday and returned to deliberate this morning. The verdict came back about 11 a.m.

"On Aug. 31, 2017, a jury in Texas found that certain Wii and Wii U video game systems and software bundles infringed a patent belonging to iLife Technologies Inc. related to detecting if a person has fallen down," Nintendo said in a statement provided to Glixel. "The jury awarded iLife $10 million in damages. Nintendo disagrees with the decision, as Nintendo does not infringe iLife’s patent and the patent is invalid. Nintendo looks forward to raising those issues with the district court and with the court of appeals."

Rolling Stone

Sue me if AP.

 

[Neptonic]

How

 

[Deleted member 231381]

This will get overturned.

 

[aGuyInaBearSuit]

Well dang there goes all the money they were gonna make on the incredibly small number of SNES Classics they're going to produce.

 

[WhupTroyGAF]

Welp, there goes all the profits from the Wii U sales.

Edit: missed joke timing by one post dagnabit

 

[GravityInsanity]

Yikes

 

[Maximo]

Well dang there goes all the money they were gonna make on the incredibly small number of SNES Classics they're going to produce.

*Dam guess we gotta delay VC even longer"

 

[Kebiinu]

Nintendo lawyers actually lost the battle? I'm surprised, lol.

 

[KyleCross]

Only $10mil? I'm surprised.

 

[DeathbyCheerios]

Well dang there goes all the money they were gonna make on the incredibly small number of SNES Classics they're going to produce.

They are going to cut down current preorders in half.

 

[Alexlf]

Meh, they haven't even hit appeals yet. I bet the appeal is granted and things are settled out of court.

 

[Quonny]

Stupid, but it'll just get overturned/settled. Shows how poor our patent system is, though.

 

[Makonero]

Nintendo lawyers actually lost the battle? I'm surprised, lol.

Juries. They're always filled by people who want to be there. So they're weird.

 

[Madao]

Nintendo lawyers actually lost the battle? I'm surprised, lol.

why fight for a discountinued product? better save those lawyer fees for the impeding lawsuits against Switch tech once the copyright trolls catch up.

 

[Mellahan]

I'm not privy to law, but why would it be overturned?

 

[HowZatOZ]

Juries. They're always filled by people who want to be there. So they're weird.

Yeah in the case of patents juries seems like a stupid way to deliberate technology differences. Get a judge that actually knows their shit because juries can just be swamped with details and data to think a choice is the right one.

 

[DeathbyCheerios]

If this was one of these silly cases that made no sense than Nintendo should fire their lawyers.

 

[Datschge]

Only $10mil? I'm surprised.

iLife Technologies sued for $144 mil apparently, $4 per unit for the 36 mil Wiis at the time. (Which is odd if it's the Wiimote supposedly infringing the patent. Wouldn't they want royalty per Wiimote then?)

 

[Cess007]

I think this is the first time I've read about Nintendo losing a lawsuit!

 

[Rellik]

I'm not privy to law, but why would it be overturned?

People on here just automatically side with the big loved gaming company when they steal things.

 

[addik]

Oops there goes their Mother 3 translation funds

 

[grandjedi6]

Only $10mil? I'm surprised.

They sued for a lot more but the jury didn't grant it to them:

Texas federal jury on Thursday found Nintendo of America Inc. infringed a motion detection patent through its Wii gaming system and awarded $10.1 million in damages, far short of the $144 million the patent holder had sought in the week-and-a-half-long trial.

https://www.law360.com/cases/52b88ffbb7ff892d8800a799

 

[Makonero]

People on here just automatically side with the big loved gaming company when they steal things.

Because the wiimote can't sense if you've fallen down

literally doesn't infringe the patent

which is invalid anyways

and this is a patent troll

 

[BriGuy]

$10 million in the face of what the Wii made is nothing. But I know a great way to make it back and then some (cough majemoreNESandSNESclassics cough)!

 

[Imbarkus]

Wii and Wii U video game systems and software bundles infringed a patent belonging to iLife Technologies Inc. related to detecting if a person has fallen down

 

[Neptonic]

People on here just automatically side with the big loved gaming company when they steal things.

But they didn't steal anything

 

[Wamb0wneD]

Does this open the floodgates or will it stay an exception? Like... God damn.

People on here just automatically side with the big loved gaming company when they steal things.

Sure thing.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Because the wiimote can't sense if you've fallen down

literally doesn't infringe the patent

which is invalid anyways

and this is a patent troll

Nah, we're all just corporate shills. /s

 

[DeathbyCheerios]

Because the wiimote can't sense if you've fallen down

literally doesn't infringe the patent

which is invalid anyways

and this is a patent troll

So Nintendos lawyers did an absolutely awful job than.

It's either Nintendo infringed or the above.

 

[NSESN]

Why a jury in US have power over something made in a entirely different country?

 

[Makonero]

So Nintendos lawyers did an absolutely awful job than.

It's either Nintendo infringed or the above.

again

juries

AKA

luddites with power

 

[grandjedi6]

So Nintendos lawyers did an absolutely awful job than.

It's either Nintendo infringed or the above.

Its not that cut and dry. It was tried in Texas: the home of all patent troll cases. And it was a jury case. And they only got $10 million of the $144 they sued for.

Let's see how it does in the appeals

 

[FyreWulff]

"On Aug. 31, 2017, a jury in Texas

lemme guess, Eastern Texas District ?

 

[DeathbyCheerios]

Why a jury in US have power over something made in a entirely different country?

Because you can't sell a product in the USA if it infringes on a patent in the USA.

 

[J@hranimo]

That's like taking a few bills from dozens of stacks of millions lol.

 

[McHuj]

Why a jury in US have power over something made in a entirely different country?

Because it's sold in the us. This only applies to wiimotes that we're sold in the us.

 

[sixteen-bit]

They can't all be donkey kong

 

[True Fire]

Something tells me that a bunch of random civilians in Texas aren't overly proficient in the complexities of patent law. This will likely be overturned.

 

[ggx2ac]

Its not that cut and dry. It was tried in Texas: the home of all patent troll cases. And it was a jury case. And they only got $10 million of the $144 they sued for.

Let's see how it does in the appeals

Oh, that explains it. Where most companies just settle out of court with patent trolls because there's so many of them.

 

[NSESN]

Because you can't sell a product in the USA if it infringes on a patent in the USA.

So if I make a patent in my country and not in the US, and then some years after if I want to sell my product there I have to do another patent?

 

[PreyingShark]

Yep, patent trolls it seems https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/31/nintendo-pay-10-million-wii-patent-lawsuit/

Around the same time that it sued Nintendo, iLife also filed patent infringement suits against a number of other companies -- including Fitbit and Under Armour -- that involved the same patents listed in the Nintendo case.

 

[Cerium]

It'll go to appeal.

 

[Alebrije]

In before Nintendo changes lawyers.

 

[entremet]

Why do juries keep falling for these patent trolls?

 

[Elaugaufein]

The Texas Patent Court is famously friendly to whatever idiot wants to sue for anything. It's patent troll central.

They fairly regularly get told to cut that shit out by even conservative superior courts.

 

[Acquiescence]

10 mil isn't much, about the budget of a Mario Party game. They'll live.

 

[DeathbyCheerios]

So if I make a patent in my country and not in the US, and then some years after if I want to sell my product there I have to do another patent?

Yes.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

why fight for a discountinued product? better save those lawyer fees for the impeding lawsuits against Switch tech once the copyright trolls catch up.

That is already happening. The company behind the Wikipad 7 tablet (Gamevice) which has a detachable controller.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/11/nintendo-faces-lawsuit-over-switch-controllers/
The suit calls for damages and asks for a ban on sales of the Switch so you know it is completely sane.

 

[Het_Nkik]

Nintendo lawyers actually lost the battle? I'm surprised, lol.

I think this is the first time I've read about Nintendo losing a lawsuit!

I mean, Nintendo losing to Galoob was a pretty big deal. Pretty much legalized mods.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Galoob_Toys,_Inc._v._Nintendo_of_America,_Inc.

 

[FyreWulff]

Why do juries keep falling for these patent trolls?

The patent trolling is so important to their economy that the local residents are honestly already primed to always find in favor of the trolls to keep the gravy train coming.

Not even being a corporate apologist here, the last time I bothered to look at these cases the patents barely resembled who they were suing.