Nintendo must pay $15 million to former Sony inventor in 3DS lawsuit

I have no doubt this inventor is entitled by law to this money but it's just pocket change to Nintendo.

This sort of happened with American Mcgee, though no one seems aware of it. Even Mcgee himself has never really mentioned it to my knowledge.

He originally presented the idea of Alice to Disney as a dark take on the classic story and was told his idea was great. Disney seemed very enthusiastic about the whole thing but eventually shelved the idea, and did nothing with it.

A few years ago as Mcgee began working on the sequel for Alice, Disney felt it was the correct time to make the "dark wonderland" movie, only they handed the project over to Tim Burton. No credit for the project was ever acknowledged for Mcgee or his team.

I feel that this is essentially what happened between Nintendo and Tomita. I don't think that the idea for the project would have really occurred to Nintendo had it not been for Tomita. (I could be wrong, but the courts seem to disagree)

(On a complete side note, I think that Tim Burton's take on Alice was a complete load of crap. It was just plain boring and unimaginative, but it seems to be getting a sequel. So eat up kids)

I disappointed he didnt get the full amount he deserves.

So he went to Nintendo with idea, Nintendo said they were not interested, and then Nintendo used his idea without him. Reminds me of the movie Flash of Genius.

People always say GS hates and bashes Gamespot, I don't see it. Most of the more senior staff, the people that present in videos, I don't recall them bashing Nintendo. In fact, they seem to like Nintendo and often talk about how their games are just great and fun. They often forgive things like how their sequels are usually very similar to previous ones, or simple graphics, etc.

so the 3DS has sold 32 million units at a couple hundred per unit not to mention the licensing fee per game....yeah I don't think 15 million would be that bad of a dent in comparison ESPECIALLY considering how the 3DS is only getting better and better games all the time and selling more and more units every day. I don't think Nintendo has anything to worry about.

Guess they're really gonna need those top sales now! XD

R.I.P. 3DS STILL SUCK............................................

What would Gamespot do if their favorite whipping boy on the block Nintendo, did happen to cease to exist. Who will Eddie and the boys pick on next. Will Gamespot throw a big bash and personally invite all of us to help celebrate Nintendo's demise?

That dude is so freaking lucky! He'll never have to work again, and he can buy whatever he wants.

Wow, it really amazes me how so many of you don't read the articles and pull conclusions out of thin air based on their titles.

For those of you who don't get it, allow me to shed light on this matter by repeating what's already stated and linked in this very article by GameSpot:

Case at hand is between Seijiro Tomita, a former Sony Inventor, and Nintendo. Sony has NO DIRECT INVOLVEMENT in this case. It is impossible for them to be involved in any way because they: 1) Have no stake/ownership in these patents and 2) Did not/cannot file a complaint (see #1 if you're confused already).

The case went to trial, the jury ruled in favor in Seijiro Tomita and he was awarded $30.2 million dollars.

Personally, I suspect the jury in this case was probably pretty ignorant and had no understanding of how to interpret these patent designs or their inner workings, which is a big disadvantage to Nintendo's defense. However the Court system in this case wasn't so ignorant and here is what followed:

“The jury’s damages award was at least twice as large as the amount a reasonable jury could have awarded based on the evidence presented at trial and thereby must have involved the degree of excessive speculation that shocks the judicial conscience,” U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said in a decision yesterday.

And let's not forget, Nintendo is being allowed to appeal the ruling (which I'm certain will probably go through with few problems).

How did he come to the figure of $9.80?

Stealing intellectual properties for commercial uses is probably the worst kind of theft.

Let's have a raise of hands here! Anyone who bothered to read further than the headlines say "aye!"

Well, good for the guy. No matter how big a company is, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Apple, need to know that they're not above the law just because they can hire the most expensive lawyers.

This article leaves out that Nintendo is going to appeal this decision. This is because paying any amount of money would be admitting to stealing Mr. Tomita's invention.

I've come to the conclusion that the majority of people just read the headline, and then post something.