Seemingly out of the blue, Capcom has decided to sue Koei Tecmo for 980 million yen (about $9.4 million). As reported in Japan's Sankei Shimbun and interpreted on NeoGAF, Capcom claims that several titles in Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors series across the PS2 and PS3 infringe on a pair of patents — one covers the addition of characters and scenarios via additional software (i.e. expansion discs), the other covers a feature in which your controller rumbles when enemies are near.
Koei Tecmo of course denies any infringement on its part, but Capcom will have none of that. In fact, the House of Monster Hunter claims that the infringements amount to 97 billion yen, and it wishes to halt the sales of several Koei Tecmo titles in addition to seeking 5-10% in license fees.
If what NeoGAF says is true, these patents date back to 2002. That begs the question, what took Capcom so long to take this matter to court? Cetainly the company must have known about the infringements a good while back? This almost feels like the kind of suit a patent troll would file years after the named party has made millions off the supposed infringed patent.
We'll keep you posted on new developments.
