Support NeoGAF

[Tripon]

A patent dispute in the U.S. between Tomita Technologies International Inc. and Nintendo Co. (7974) has been sent back to a lower court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that a judge incorrectly interpreted a key element in a patent related to the display of 3-D images on a screen without special glasses for the viewer. The misinterpretation then confused the jury, the court said.

Kyoto-based Nintendo appealed the lower court finding that its 3DS gaming system infringed Tokyo-based Tomita’s patent 7,417,664. While the appeals court said the patent element was interpreted correctly, it rejected Nintendo’s argument that the patent was invalid.

The appeals court sent the case back to New York for a new trial based on jury instructions that clarified the confusion over the patent element.

The case is Tomita Technologies USA LLC v. Nintendo Co. Ltd, 2014-1244, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The lower court case is 1:11-cv-04256, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-09/nintendo-google-wellogix-pot-intellectual-property.html

If you're wondering what happened before, there was this thread from last year.

Guess, Nintendo never paid the royalty rate to Tomita, and this makes sense to why New 3DS didn't try to take away the 3D.

 

[James Scott]

Was there another case of a patent troll trying to take royalties from 3DS sales? Or was it only this one?

 

[Tripon]

Was there another case of a patent troll trying to take royalties from 3DS sales? Or was it only this one?

This really isn't a case of a patent troll. Tomita did schedule an interview with Nintendo hawking his way of glasses-less 3D, and Nintendo did sat down and looked at it.

The way that Nintendo does 3D is different from what Tomita did though, so it still shouldn't have been ruled in Tomita's favor, IMO. Looks like the court of appeals agrees.

 

[Josh5890]

I thought that this story was over with. It will be interesting to see the end result.

 

[Neo Dark]

I thought that this story was over with. It will be interesting to see the end result.

Sure would especially since the patent really did describe glasses free 3D differently than what Nintendo uses. Plus as before, I question why it's Nintendo that should take the damage if this is Sharp's technology.

 

[Tripon]

Sure would especially since the patent really did describe glasses free 3D differently than what Nintendo uses. Plus as before, I question why it's Nintendo that should take the damage if this is Sharp's technology.

I think its because Tomita took the tech to Nintendo, not Sharp.