You know how the 3DS uses a way to look at it where things show up in 3D but you don’t have to wear glasses? No? Oh. It does that. Well, turns out that Nintendo technically never had the right to put that technology into the machine.
The patent to do so belongs to an ex-Sony employee by the name of Seijiro Tomita. He owns the patent to glasses-free 3D technology and successfully took the company to court. They’ll have to pay out $30.2 Million to the guy, though he’d started by asking for $292 million ($9.80 for every 3DS sold).
How unhappy he must be with the end result.
He’d initally sued the company in 2011, but the court case only began last month. Now, finally, the jury reached agreement that Nintendo’s defense that they didn’t entirely follow the letter of the patent and made attempts to try other things, was unfounded.
There’s no word on what Tomita is going to do with the settlement money. If I were him I’d probably register a couple more patents and see what happens. Like winning the lottery and then buying up a bunch of scratch cards. It’s guaranteed to be an effective use of your cash.
Nintendo haven’t released a statement about how this will impact their business. Presumably the loss will not reach the consumers’ wallet in any meaningful way.
We will keep you updated as this continues.
