Nintendo ordered to pay $10,000,000 for Patent Infringement

[Master Disaster]

4 years ago iLife filed a lawsuit against Nintendo claiming the technology in the Wii and Wii U infringed on their patents

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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 took less than 24 hours to reach the verdict, they were dismissed on Wednesday evening to deliberate and returned at 11am on Thursday 31st August with the guilty verdict

Quote

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 has already pledged to appeal the decision

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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."

iLife create infant monitoring technology designed to detect cot death and SIDS but have argued their patents can be applied to technology in other industries and were used by Nintendo when creating the Wii, obviously the courts agree.

Quote

The company iLife Technologies uses its tech to monitor infants to help prevent sudden infant death syndrome and the elderly to watch out for falls. But iLife argued that its patented technology could be used in other applications and was used by Nintendo in the creation of its motion-sensing Wii Remote controller.

 

Although iLife was initially seeking a $4 per unit royalty payment tied to 36 million Wii systems sold in the six years before the suit was filed, Nintendo argued that the patent filed by iLife was invalid because the written description in the patent wasn't properly written.

http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/features/wii-remote-lawsuit-ends-in-10m-verdict-against-nintendo-w500619

 

Couldn't happen to a better company IMO, Nintendo deserve to be on the other side of legal disputes for a change. Of course they'll appeal but I just hope the decision isn't reversed.

 

Just shows you how shady they can be, they persue anybody who infringes on their shit and yet they just use other peoples shit like its their right.

[James7176]

Completely unrelated, Why does OP run RAID 0 on a NAS? 

[Froody129]

'Murica...

[Railgun]

It's true that Nintendo needs to chill out when it comes to legal things but they do not deserve this. These iLife people are patent trolls. The Wii did not rip off of some baby detection thing by any practical means at all.

[Master Disaster]

9 minutes ago, Railgun said:

It's true that Nintendo needs to chill out when it comes to legal things but they do not deserve this. These iLife people are patent trolls. The Wii did not rip off of some baby detection thing by any practical means at all.

You somehow think the 4 year court case didn't explore these claims in full?

[laminutederire]

15 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

You somehow think the 4 year court case didn't explore these claims in full?

Its an American court with the winning body being American and the other company not being American. From there can stem a lot; especially when deliberation was so short.

[GoodBytes]

Nintendo will fight this.. I won't be surprised if they were willing to go all the way up to the supreme court. Will probably be cheaper than $10 million.

That is the problem with patent troll, they ask for too much money... so it won't settle out of court.

 

I don't see how the Wii and WiiU infringe on this technology. I get that the Wii uses a IR sensor and Camera... but they are many different uses... from night camera, security camera, or Wii controller tracking. Heck, some VR controllers uses the same tracking (camera with IR).

 

It must be for another tech... I need to check the filing.

[Prysin]

31 minutes ago, Railgun said:

It's true that Nintendo needs to chill out when it comes to legal things but they do not deserve this. These iLife people are patent trolls. The Wii did not rip off of some baby detection thing by any practical means at all.

How do you know? Did you examine the full court details? 

[Misanthrope]

I haven't looked at the iLife patent so I can't comment on that: I trust the appeals process will reverse that if there isn't merit to the claims.

 

However saying that it couldn't happen to a nicer company? 

 

 

They're quite aggressive in protecting their intellectual property if anything they should be fully prepared to others being just as aggressive towards them, please stop defending them for something they themselves wouldn't want to be defended unless they want to stop their routine bullying of modders, translators, etc.

[Master Disaster]

3 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

I haven't looked at the iLife patent so I can't comment on that: I trust the appeals process will reverse that if there isn't merit to the claims.

 

However saying that it couldn't happen to a nicer company? 

 

 

They're quite aggressive in protecting their intellectual property if anything they should be fully prepared to others being just as aggressive towards them, please stop defending them for something they themselves wouldn't want to be defended unless they want to stop their routine bullying of modders, translators, etc.

Sorry, I actually got the line wrong, I meant to say "couldn't happen to a better company".

 

I'll correct that now.

[OmJo93]

They're also getting sued for their joy con controllers, lol.

 

http://thenerdstash.com/gamevice-sues-nintendo-switch-joycon/

 

Can't catch a break in America.

Edited September 1, 2017 by OmJo93
Sued.

[suicidalfranco]

Nintendo will just take the 10 million from the youtubers who dare to *gasp* play their games

[TidaLWaveZ]

59 minutes ago, laminutederire said:

Its an American court with the winning body being American and the other company not being American. From there can stem a lot; especially when deliberation was so short.

Regardless of whatever you're insinuating, It's iLife Technologies Inc v. Nintendo of America.

 

Furthermore, iLife is a Chinese company so it would be two American branches. If you wanna go by country of origin it's China vs Japan. If you're going to make an insinuation like that, you should do you research.

 

 

[goodtofufriday]

There would be a lot of other technologies that could be sued then. The patent in question of "falling down" is way too general. And the tech nintendo and ilife are using have been around for much longer than when the wii launched. I don't understand how ilife won the case.

 

Oh wait.

 

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/texas-is-getting-dumber-study-says-6752742

[Commodus]

I feel I need to step in here and add some context to explain why revelling in this verdict is wrong.

 

First: iLife is most definitely patent trolling.  It's not just that the claim is tenuous (really, SIDS detection for babies from a company in China?), it's that it was pursued in 2013, well after the Wii was discontinued in most places.  If iLife were actually concerned about idea theft, it wouldn't have waited until two years after the Wii left the market.  This was about scooping up money once iLife knew what the 'prize' would be.

 

Also, notice how the lawsuit was filed in Texas?  That's because the state's Eastern District has historically leaned toward plaintiffs in patent lawsuit cases, facts be damned.  Patent trolls regularly file their lawsuits there knowing they're far more likely to win.  

 

If you celebrate Nintendo's loss in this case, you're celebrating patent trolling, not karmic retribution.

[TidaLWaveZ]

25 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Ah America, land where the same white knights claiming to care for you would also rob you blind for dealing in an unrelated trade.

And the best part, the just courts side with them. Companies slogging at each other. Might as well enjoy the show.

 

[Brooksie359]

3 hours ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

Regardless of whatever you're insinuating, It's iLife Technologies Inc v. Nintendo of America.

 

Furthermore, iLife is a Chinese company so it would be two American branches. If you wanna go by country of origin it's China vs Japan. If you're going to make an insinuation like that, you should do you research.

 

 

But at the same time do the jury know this? I mean everyone knows that Nintendo is Japanese based while many wouldn't know anything about iLife. 

[TidaLWaveZ]

13 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

But at the same time do the jury know this? I mean everyone knows that Nintendo is Japanese based while many wouldn't know anything about iLife. 

If anything I would assume people would be biased in favor of Nintendo. Nintendo has a huge nostalgia factor within the population of Americans old enough to to be on jury duty. In America Mario, Yoshi, Link, etc are dangerously close to being as recognized and loved as Disney characters like Mickey Mouse.

 

My comment is really only in response to the numerous people saying the verdict went the way it did in direct response to the American system being against foreign companies. That opinion is laughably stupid not only for the reasons previously listed, but also for the fact that America is the most diverse country in the world.

[AresKrieger]

It's just going to be appealed and likely get lessened if not dropped entirely, frankly these stupid patent cases are just a way to line lawyers pockets at this point

[AresKrieger]

1 hour ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

If anything I would assume people would be biased in favor of Nintendo. Nintendo has a huge nostalgia factor within the population of Americans old enough to to be on jury duty. In America Mario, Yoshi, Link, etc are dangerously close to being as recognized and loved as Disney characters like Mickey Mouse.

Statistically speaking texas courts/juries favor the plaintiff in a patent case which is why companies who want to sue for patent infringement almost always choose to have the case in texas. So no it would be bias against nintendo in this case

[TidaLWaveZ]

9 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

Statistically speaking texas courts/juries favor the plaintiff in a patent case which is why companies who want to sue for patent infringement almost always choose to have the case in texas. So no it would be bias against nintendo in this case

An estimate based on probability at best.

 

You can't just say the decision was biased against nintendo without evidence. What you're saying is that since Texas is typically rules in favor or plaintiff than this case is biased the same way, it's just wrong.

 

[linkboy]

Nintendo's been sued like this before, and lost, only to win on appeal.

 

Patent trolls suck ass. They're nothing but a drain on the US legal system. 

 

Regardless of your opinion on Nintendo and their mistakes with Youtube, there's no reason to support a patent troll.

[Trik'Stari]

9 hours ago, Railgun said:

It's true that Nintendo needs to chill out when it comes to legal things but they do not deserve this. These iLife people are patent trolls. The Wii did not rip off of some baby detection thing by any practical means at all.

So are Nintendo in their own way.

 

They absolutely deserve this, many, many times over for their egregious misuse of patent and copyright laws.

[Master Disaster]

7 minutes ago, linkboy said:

Nintendo's been sued like this before, and lost, only to win on appeal.

 

Patent trolls suck ass. They're nothing but a drain on the US legal system. 

 

Regardless of your opinion on Nintendo and their mistakes with Youtube, there's no reason to support a patent troll.

But you're totally fine supporting a copyright troll?

[linkboy]

16 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

But you're totally fine supporting a copyright troll?

Unlike a patent troll, Nintendo actually puts out good products (and in the case of some patent trolls, an actual product).

 

I fully disagree with Nintendo's approach in regards to Youtube, that doesn't mean I don't have to like or dislike their products. There's a lot of things about companies that I dislike (see Sony and their total lackadaisical approach to account security in regards to PSN, yet I still have a PS4, as a prime example).

 

It's perfectly OK to call a company out when they're full of shit (like Nintendo is with Youtube), yet still enjoy the product they make.