Court Orders Nintendo to Pay Former Sony Engineer $15 Million for 3DS

In March a jury found Nintendo guilty of patent infringement over the 3DS' ability to display 3D images without glasses and ordered the company pay former Sony engineer Seijiro Tomita $30.2 million. Today however federal judge Jed Rakoff reduced the fine to $15 and told Tomita to take the reduced settlement or get nothing. 

Rakoff said the initial fine was "intrinsically excessive and unsupported by the evidence presented at trial".

However, he refused Nintendo's request to overturn the jury's verdict. Rakoff claimed the 3DS was not a profitable console which was the case when Tomita submitted his lawsuit but is less clear now as the handheld has become Nintendo's principal revenue driver.  

"Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of other companies and is confident that none of its products infringes the asserted patent," Nintendo spokesperson Charlie Scibetta commented in a statement.

"Nintendo will appeal the jury's verdict and reduced damages award to the court of appeals," he added. 

Source: CVG.