Nintendo a thief?

Chad and Protoman | July 08, 2008 | News | Wii DS

Well now Nintendo has really done it know they have stolen someones...IDEAS! Acording to an Illinois man Nintendo has stolen his patent on the touch screen. But I don't want to give out ALL the details go ahead and read the article.

Thanks to its innovative design and wealth of fantastic games, the Nintendo DS has scrambled to the top of the handheld gaming war, making the hardware wizards at Nintendo the darlings of the games industry.

But what if they don't hold the patent on the touchy tech?

As reported by video game blog Gamepolitics, John R. Martin has filed a complaint alleging that he owns the patent on the system's lauded touch screen. While the patent was updated in August of 2005 -- a full six months after Nintendo launched the DS -- it was originally filed a decade earlier in 1995.

The patent seems to cover the key input ingredient of Nintendo's popular handheld, citing "an improved method of operating a touch screen on a CRT or ICD computer screen [that] uses finger release as input registering" in "an electronic game device system [which] is switchable between an amusement mode and a gaming or gambling mode and is useful for vehicles such as airplanes or boats..."Sounds a little like the DS to us, minus the gambling bit.

Nintendo, however, doesn't see the connection -- the company has responded by requesting that the entire suit be summarily dismissed.

This isn't Nintendo's first scrape with patent infringement. Earlier this year the company coughed up $21 million to tech company Anascape over several Nintendo game controllers, including their famous Wavebird, widely considered the first legitimate wireless game controller.

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Comments

Comments with -10 or lower "thumbs" are removed from display.

4 thumbs!
Zero and X | July 09, 2008

The DS been out for years and now is when they bitch about it?
- 3 thumbs!
  Zeon I | July 09, 2008
  
  They can make money off it now.
2 thumbs!
VeGiTAX2 | July 09, 2008

With the patent office burning up all these squatter claims it's not entirely the best time to launch something like this unless he had demonstrated he was actually working on a physical project.

If not his claim will be shredded before his eyes like most other fools just simply patenting concepts and drawings with nothing even remotely technical accomplished. After much badgering and insults they finally grew a pair and started smashing the real trolls while leaving the actual development houses to continue on their path.
0 thumbs!
Big A2 | July 09, 2008

It doesn't matter, touch screen technology doesn't belong to anyone, just like motion sensor technology.
0 thumbs!
chautemoc | July 09, 2008

The collective unconscious knows not any patents. Har.
0 thumbs!
BANDITO ATTACK | July 09, 2008

what about the gamecom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamecom
you don't see them whining.
- 0 thumbs!
  Sonic Flash | July 09, 2008
  
  I suspect that you can patent technical implementations but not so much "a touch screen device", and then try and sue everyone after that.
  
  Nintendo patented the D pad way way ago, but companies found little technical and visual loopholes to be able to use it.
0 thumbs!
Magimaster | July 09, 2008

It seems like it's another person trying to cash in on the DS' success. I don't see why he hasn't complained about the use of the touch screen on phones which has existed for more than 5 years now. Also, the guy's original patent is extremely vague and pretty much encompasses the use of all the touch screens to date.
0 thumbs!
Lukaeu | July 09, 2008

I remember when the Wii had just came out people where talking about Nintendo being threatened to sue because of something. But isn't it kind of late to sue Nintendo for that? It's been over two years since the DS came out you think they would of noticed earlier if their technology was stolen.
0 thumbs!
R1DDL3S | July 09, 2008

They get more money from it now because it is such a huge success but that just means it is more likely to be rejected.
0 thumbs!
Big Willie | July 09, 2008

Shouldn't he be more ticked with those touchscreen gambling machines they have in bars? Those machines do exactly what his patent describes...