Philips wants to ban Wii and Wii U in America

[Judas18]

How embarrassing. Personally I dislike Phillips, their TV's are mediocre at best. But the law is the law I guess.

 

[GHANMI]

Philips sure has lazy lawyers.... ban the Wii? why not do it like 6 years ago? when it was still relevant

Because the patent (for the remote... and it mentions a "camera" by the way) was filed in 2009 and only accepted in September 2013, after being refused in lots of countries. They also were unusually persistent about it. As for the patent for the "virtual body tracking", it doesn't even apply to the Wiimote at all.
The drawing for the patent is priceless.

 

[the_randomizer]

How embarrassing. Personally I dislike Phillips, their TV's are mediocre at best. But the law is the law I guess.

As convoluted as the patent system is, but it ain't the first time someone tried to do this. Vague accusation is vague.

 

[Deleted User]

yeah Philips, good going
you should ban those lame videogames and bless the world with the CD-i Ü

they're probably suing nintendo because it's an easy target, I'd like to see them trying to sue Sony over the PS Move ( since on a loose interpretation it follows basically the same concept )
it'd be hilarious to see their asses being kicked by sony

 

[Fat D]

Because the patent (for the remote... and it mentions a "camera" by the way) was filed in 2009

So basically Nintendo travelled back in time to infringe on the Philips patent two years before it was filed...

 

[PolloDiablo]

Because the patent (for the remote... and it mentions a "camera" by the way) was filed in 2009 and only accepted in September 2013, after being refused in lots of countries. They also were unusually persistent about it. As for the patent for the "virtual body tracking", it doesn't even apply to the Wiimote at all.
The drawing for the patent is priceless.

how does that work then? Philips's patent was filled after the release of the Wiimote

 

[GHANMI]

So basically Nintendo travelled back in time to infringe on the Philips patent two years before it was filed...

The other one, about the "virtual reality user detecting control device" or whatever (which really applies to the Kinect more than anything else... it's a diagram with just an idea, an arrow from "user position" to "camera" to "device"...) was applied in the late nineties.
if anything it would be invalidated by every IR sensor ever created

 

[the_randomizer]

I hope those sue-happy wankers go under. Or that they get counter-sued.

 

[Shuji1987]

Lol, nu.nl as source XD That's weak haha

 

[Qtis]

The veto power is for acts of Congress, not court rulings. I don't think the President would have any say in this... or any reason to care, for that matter.

In cases of banning products, the president can veto the ban. That's what happened with the Apple vs. Samsung bannings. Patent infringements are apparently another matter.

claims are very generic. "a way to follow a person's body, and use this as a way to input the actions in a 'virtual reality"

all 3 major consoles and a lot of electronic equipment infringe this patent if philips' claims are right.

nothing will come out of court.

Except it's not infringement if they have an agreement. That's the nice thing about patents. You can use them as long as you compensate the owner

 

[flo]

their TV's are mediocre at best

I agree

I always thought Nintendo is the leader in innovation and the creators of motion controlled gaming . Not true ?

 

[the_randomizer]

In cases of banning products, the president can veto the ban. That's what happened with the Apple vs. Samsung bannings. Patent infringements are apparently another matter.



Except it's not infringement if they have an agreement. That's the nice thing about patents. You can use them as long as you compensate the owner

So....you're saying Nintendo is pretty much shit outta luck. They'd better have some good lawyers for this. Why haven't they done anything to resolve this?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I agree

I always thought Nintendo is the leader in innovation and the creators of motion controlled gaming . Not true ?

Motion controllers in gaming have been around for a while, Nintendo was just the first to focus an entire major console around the idea. For example, the PS Move was originally being worked on when the PS Eye camera for the PS2 was released, but because the technology was a bit more pricey back then they didn't do anything about it until later years.

 

[Qtis]

So....you're saying Nintendo is pretty much shit outta luck. They'd better have some good lawyers for this. Why haven't they done anything to resolve this?

Ah, worded it a bit weird, but regardless. If they have infringed and it can be proved, they'll end up paying up. I highly doubt a court would start banning console sales, but the payments can be big. Say a $1 per console would already result at around $150 million-ish and that's not even talking about lawyer fees (probably both parties in case of a loss) and the actual penalties in case they are rewarded.

In case of the US, the patent law system is quite absurd in the sense that the end results depend a lot on the location of the court. Eastern Texas is one of the favoured locations in terms of patent trolls, since the courts tend to give more way for broad interpretations of patents (software and design patents being the worst in the sense that "same as patent X except with internet added" has been a successful patent used to win moneyz out of large corporations).

But, IANAL and do not live in the States.. Alas, I'm interested in the outcome, but it'll take years for any kind of injunction is set in place. At least if the judge has even a remote kind of sense in him/her.

 

[joelv6]

if this were true, then man this guys are idiots

 

[the_randomizer]

if this were true, then man this guys are idiots

Fine is likely, injunction not so much, why the US and not other countries is baffling. People would just form a black market anyway. Crazy Dutch bastards

 

[VashTS]

this is really serious guys. nintendo is officially going out of business. they are going to announce this at e3.

two abstract copyrights like this being infringed upon? that's some serious issues.

 

[the_randomizer]

this is really serious guys. nintendo is officially going out of business. they are going to announce this at e3.

two abstract copyrights like this being infringed upon? that's some serious issues.

Oh I know, the game industry as we know it is going under. It'll be a domino effect.

 

[FAST6191]

this is really serious guys. nintendo is officially going out of business. they are going to announce this at e3.

two abstract copyrights like this being infringed upon? that's some serious issues.

There is the concept of death by a thousand cuts.

More to the point we do deal in news on patents, especially when they concern game consoles. Sucks that it has to come to us by way of the Dutch equivalent of the Huffington post but hey.

 

[tbgtbg]

Because the patent (for the remote... and it mentions a "camera" by the way) was filed in 2009 and only accepted in September 2013, after being refused in lots of countries.

IOW, they're patent trolls. I hope they, and all of their ilk, eat a bag of dicks and die.