Nintendo files $40 Million Dollar lawsuit against Japanese mobile game company "Colopl"

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Colopl is a Japanese mobile game company that has been running Shiro Neko Project, a pretty successful Action-RPG, since 2014 in Japan. The game was marketed as a true "one-finger RPG", allowing players, as the name suggests, to play the game with one finger. It uses an emulated analogue stick to accomplish tasks such as moving the character, attacking and using skills.

Nothing unusual, right? Well, it seems Nintendo doesn't think so as it filed a lawsuit against Colopl—three years after Shiro Neko Project's release, and after a year-long negotiations attempt between the companies—for violating five tech patent rights, and is asking for $40,000,000 in damages. One of these patents involve operating a joystick over a touch screen. Details are lacking since the lawsuit is fresh and everything official is in Japanese, but it is speculated Nintendo may be referring to the emulated analogue stick used in Super Mario 64 DS as an optional control method.

thumbpad.jpg

It's rather strange Nintendo specifically targets Colopl's game since there are A LOT of games that make use of an emulated joystick. It may be Shiro Neko Project uses a technique that too closely resembles the one used in Super Mario 64 DS. As said, details are scarce and there may be more to it. The other four patents Nintendo claims to have been violated are unknown at this time. The document provided by Colopl may contain more information, but it is Japanese. Maybe users who understand Japanese can help? Edit: No new information.

In any event, Colopl provided a statement claiming those assertions are unfair. Time will tell how this story will develop.

:arrow: Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4
 
Last edited by WiiUBricker,

anhminh

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On one hand, we have a big company pick on smaller company. On the other hand, we have quality game company pick on a free2play mobage company.

Since I hate f2p garbage more than capitalism so I will be on Ninty side this time.

Oh, and the joystick are just one of 5 charges, maybe they just add it in for more charges pressure instead of actually pursuit it.
 
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How is this worthy of a lawsuit but all the apps using Pokemon to sell their app isn't? I don't know how many times I've come across apps that say things like "true Pokemon mobile experience!" and the app icon is literally a Pokeball. Granted the actual game has nothing to do with or look remotely like Pokemon, but still.
It's very likely that those apps get C&D letters before anything happens. The article says that they've been negotiating privately for a year before suing.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Details are lacking since the lawsuit is fresh and everything official is in Japanese, but it is speculated Nintendo may be referring to the emulated analogue stick used in Super Mario 64 DS as an optional control method.

View attachment 110881
By the way, I don't think that speculations like this should be part of news.
 
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Nintendo would have to sue every developer for 80-90% of any action game on the Play Store and the Apple app store. Not to mention any emulators (even the ones that aren't emulating Nintendo consoles) that use an emulated joystick. Shit, I'd like to see them just try to sue Google or Apple and go bankrupt.

For what it's worth, the touchscreen joystick emulation was annoying as hell in SM64DS and I ended up just using the D-pad. With the DS D-pad being as terrible as it is, my hand cramped up and I didn't play much more than an hour of the game, and so the feature wasn't really worth patenting in the first place.
 

RedBlueGreen

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I don't know what surprises me more.

The fact that you can copyright a control scheme
Or the fact that someone is actually trying to sue for it

Let alone the fact that they somehow lost money over this? How in the hell does this cost them any sales or money?
Bad publicity and coverage lowers share prices. No idea how it works though, maybe investors pull out and shareholders sell their stock making the value go down.
 
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Sony was only bad bout when cfw first started on the ps3 -cough- Geohotz -cough- I haven't heard of any rumblings of lawsuits since then.....odd
He only got in trouble for leaking encryption keys. I personally feel however that randomly generated letters and numbers shouldn't be able to be copyrighted.
 

Spider_Man

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fuck nintendo, they have the nerve to attack small companies for using the same idea.

well fuck a duck and come back quacking, everything nintendo do is based off old inferior tech that has already been used.

ohh please let the company that did the morphus x300 take nintendo to court for not only stealing the same idea, but even basically copying its same design and features. hell let all the other tablets.
 
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Garro

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Despise I hope for Nintendo's success in general, I do agree this lawsuit is ridiculous.

But then again, it's not the first nor the last time bit companies sue or get sued for the most dumbest patents registered, which just bring the point that the current patenting system is not working. (I still faintly remember a lawsuit from Apple's patent of "circled edges" on devices).
 

Clydefrosch

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none of you know what they sue against specifically, yet you all hate on nintendo.

its just as with everything else, they have a patent and they will lose it unless they defend it. clearly, this time there is good reason to do so. what if it turns out they actually took code from sm64ds?
 

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none of you know what they sue against specifically, yet you all hate on nintendo.

its just as with everything else, they have a patent and they will lose it unless they defend it. clearly, this time there is good reason to do so. what if it turns out they actually took code from sm64ds?
I might not know a lot, but i think that would actually constitute a lawsuit for copyright issues, considering they own the copyrights to all their code. This specific case is a patent issue.

Unless I'm mistaken though, i thought copyright refers to protection for An expression of an idea (like computer games, paintings, songs) and a patent is a government given authorization that absolutely no one can use your invention at all, including the expression of it, without your permission at all. In a way, it could be considered a temporary monopoly for your invention.
That being said, Nintendo is saying that they practically invented that joystick (in japan)

At least this is what I'm getting out of it
 
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fuck nintendo, they have the nerve to attack small companies for using the same idea.

well fuck a duck and come back quacking, everything nintendo do is based off old inferior tech that has already been used.

ohh please let the company that did the morphus x300 take nintendo to court for not only stealing the same idea, but even basically copying its same design and features. hell let all the other tablets.

Again this story? Stop spreading lies.
Nintendo did NOT copies/based anything from the Morphus. The Morphus application patent is from 2015 while Nintendo had Switch prototypes in early 2014. I can't post links so google "freepatentsonline" and search "AIKUN (CHINA) ELECTRONICS COMPANY (Shenzhen, CN)". Then google "japanesenintendo 168891059724".

Stop being such a troll.
 

RedBlueGreen

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Again this story? Stop spreading lies.
Nintendo did NOT copies/based anything from the Morphus. The Morphus application patent is from 2015 while Nintendo had Switch prototypes in early 2014. I can't post links so google "freepatentsonline" and search "AIKUN (CHINA) ELECTRONICS COMPANY (Shenzhen, CN)". Then google "japanesenintendo 168891059724".

Stop being such a troll.
The Switch had a ton of different patents though, and that still doesn't change the fact that it's a tablet, meaning that if Nintendo is suing over a touch screen joystick then it's fair Apple, Google, Samsung, Sony, and whoever else makes tablets to sue Nintendo for using a tablet design for the Switch.
none of you know what they sue against specifically, yet you all hate on nintendo.

its just as with everything else, they have a patent and they will lose it unless they defend it. clearly, this time there is good reason to do so. what if it turns out they actually took code from sm64ds?
And how exactly would they do that with a closed source game? I really doubt they reverse engineered Super Mario 64 DS enough that they actually got the code for the analog stick on the touch screen.

It wouldn't be that hard for someone who can program to make touch buttons with an SDK designed for making mobile apps. So the chances that they used SM64DS code is almost 0%.

We didn't see the manufacturers for arcade parts or Atari (for including joysticks on consoles) suing Nintendo for using an analog stick on the N64. And if they have it hasn't been pursued in mentioned in a very long time.

I hope this company sues Nintendo and wins. They have much more grounds for a lawsuit here actually. The fact that Nintendo waited so long and hasn't been going after everyone else already means that they weren't defending the patent, which I guarantee wasn't infringed on because these touch joysticks are different from the big ass circle you drag on SM64 DS. This company however has seen a 20% decrease in share price and will probably be getting negative news coverage meaning they could sue for damages and claim something defamation.

Nintendo's obviously in the wrong here.
 
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Clydefrosch

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The Switch had a ton of different patents though, and that still doesn't change the fact that it's a tablet, meaning that if Nintendo is suing over a touch screen joystick then it's fair Apple, Google, Samsung, Sony, and whoever else makes tablets to sue Nintendo for using a tablet design for the Switch.

And how exactly would they do that with a closed source game? I really doubt they reverse engineered Super Mario 64 DS enough that they actually got the code for the analog stick on the touch screen.

It wouldn't be that hard for someone who can program to make touch buttons with an SDK designed for making mobile apps. So the chances that they used SM64DS code is almost 0%.

We didn't see the manufacturers for arcade parts or Atari (for including joysticks on consoles) suing Nintendo for using an analog stick on the N64. And if they have it hasn't been pursued in mentioned in a very long time.

I hope this company sues Nintendo and wins. They have much more grounds for a lawsuit here actually. The fact that Nintendo waited so long and hasn't been going after everyone else already means that they weren't defending the patent, which I guarantee wasn't infringed on because these touch joysticks are different from the big ass circle you drag on SM64 DS. This company however has seen a 20% decrease in share price and will probably be getting negative news coverage meaning they could sue for damages and claim something defamation.

Nintendo's obviously in the wrong here.

thats for judges to decide.
you can be sure that its not just because they used a run of the mill 'touch analog stick'. because if that was the case, it would've been a whole flock of lawsuits.
its not like its a random nintendo employe who filed this suit, but a lawyer. someone with a degree who looked into it and saw an actual case.

in addition, they talk of a number of violations, meaning there's more than the joystick
 

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thats for judges to decide.
you can be sure that its not just because they used a run of the mill 'touch analog stick'. because if that was the case, it would've been a whole flock of lawsuits.
its not like its a random nintendo employe who filed this suit, but a lawyer. someone with a degree who looked into it and saw an actual case.

in addition, they talk of a number of violations, meaning there's more than the joystick
It's probably an in-house attorney filing the lawsuit, and the degree really doesn't matter since it makes them no less likely to represent a frivolous lawsuit. This is also not a criminal offense, it's infringement, so it's not as open and shut as if somebody committed assault or theft.

It doesn't matter that there weren't a flood of lawsuits either. It's pretty suspicious that Nintendo waited a long time and is only suing now after they've been sued a few times.

There's also the fact that people can apply to patent and copyright whatever they want, meaning that there could be tons of similar patents already, or they could just patent whatever. Whether or not the patent can actually be enforced is also important. Like apple trying to patent rounded edges on phones. It's ridiculous and I doubt it's enforceable.

Like a lot of other people seem to think I agree that this is Nintendo trying to seem powerful or just get money after they've been sued. $40 million is ridiculous anyway since they were only sued for $10 million about the Wii Remote.
 
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I see everybody whining "Nintendo suing for a digital analog, how could they, clearly a bunch of bullies, hope they loose, no respect for them anymore, wahh, wahhh, wahhhhh"

Did you guys ever stopped and thought for a second that this digital analog might be using Nintendp's propietary code and that could be the reason for the lawsuit? Easier to bandwagon when we don't know the facts I guess...
 
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RedBlueGreen

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I see everybody whining "Nintendo suing for a digital analog, how could they, clearly a bunch of bullies, hope they loose, no respect for them anymore, wahh, wahhh, wahhhhh"

Did you guys ever stopped and thought for a second that this digital analog might be using Nintendp's propietary code and that could be the reason for the lawsuit? Easier to bandwagon when we don't know the facts I guess...
Except that Nintendo's games are all closed source and it would cost more and take more time to allocate people to reverse engineering the game than it would to program an on screen joystick. I'm sure a lot of mobile game SDKs would make it really simple to make on screen buttons that would control movement and actions, so they wouldn't even need to steal the code.

Nintendo wouldn't be able to tell if they had used the code without reverse engineering the game anyway, which could land them in hot water as well.

Besides you have no right to criticize people for criticizing Nintendo here since you can't back up what you're suggesting.
 

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Except that Nintendo's games are all closed source and it would cost more and take more time to allocate people to reverse engineering the game than it would to program an on screen joystick. I'm sure a lot of mobile game SDKs would make it really simple to make on screen buttons that would control movement and actions, so they wouldn't even need to steal the code.

Nintendo wouldn't be able to tell if they had used the code without reverse engineering the game anyway, which could land them in hot water as well.

Besides you have no right to criticize people for criticizing Nintendo here since you can't back up what you're suggesting.
Have you ever thought that maybe someone in that company used to work for Nintendo? Just food for thought.
 

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Colopl better have nuts the size of King Kong to face off against the Big N in court and if the judge says, "Show me the receipts", they had better be ready.

I applaud anyone that caught my reference.
 

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