Nintendo acquires "troll's" patent portfolio after legal victory

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-acquires-troll-s-patent-portfolio-after-legal-victory/1100-6417060/

by bane • 13 years ago

78 19 13 years ago

jmaygarden• 13 years ago

Is the patent troll moniker appropriate in this case? Wasn't IA Labs actually building and trying to sell similar products?

eloff• 13 years ago

Not really a patent troll. Too aggressive in defending their patents, yes, but will within their rights to try. Especially as it appeared to them that their ideas had been ripped off after they pitched them to Nintendo.

egeozcan• 13 years ago

A patent troll is a company with the sole purpose of, well, patent trolling (Collecting patents, waiting for a successful target and suing them for profit, not for keeping competitive advantage)

In this case, I don't see that. They may be called over-aggressive, evil even but not patent trolls.

josephagoss• 13 years ago

Come on! IA Labs built similar tech and met with Nintendo before the wii remote was announced, if I was in their shoes I would sue too.

Unfortunately Nintendo had already created the tech and had evidence, so IA Labs run themselves into the ground.

I would not label IA Labs a troll, thats not fair and misrepresents what was going on.

Jormundir• 13 years ago

IA labs developed their own technology and weren't just suing because they owned a patent, but because they thought their competitive advantage gained from development was being infringed upon. So they aren't a patent troll.

This case does, however, seem to be a solid win for reasonable patent law enforcement. The precedence from this appears to be: if you over-step or over attack using your patent portfolio, you'll pay a big price. Hopefully this will help those defending legal disputes with real patent trolls moving forward.

iwwr• 13 years ago

This will merely make trolls create shell companies for each individual lawsuit. If a shell loses a lawsuit (i.e. patent found invalid), the winner can just pick up a lot of nothing.

kika3• 13 years ago

This shell company can not own nothing, it have to own the patent(s) in question.

aptwebapps• 13 years ago

Don't some do this already? However, the corporate veil can be pierced - it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

paul9290• 13 years ago

It's pretty bad that this whole patents are evil moniker/sentiment has risen in the past few years. Seems to be great for page views!

Not everyone with a patent is a troll, rather many are the little guy who were not able to win the race because A) they don't have enough resources or B) they couldn't rally enough troops to get behind them.

Thus a patent is a way to stake a claim and protect their invention. If it's worth something then others will copy it and due to sheer luck make it a success. While you the inventor are left with an empty bag and oh a patent that you can try and use to be rewarded for your invention.

nova• 13 years ago

Not everyone with a patent is a troll, rather many are the little guy who were not able to win the race because A) they don't have enough resources or B) they couldn't rally enough troops to get behind them

In other words, the patent system benefits big companies with big lawyer armies and trolls with nothing to lose, and is useless for the little inventor who doesn't have the muscle to fight the legal war if someone copies his precious invention but now also have to worry to be the one being sued because of some obvious patent one can infringe just by breathing.

But let's keep the fantasy that patents protect the little guy after all.

Nintendo acquires "troll's" patent portfolio after legal victory

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