Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Judge Sets Royalty Fee To Be Paid By Nintendo On Every 3DS Sold
Nintendo has been on the receiving end of a patent lawsuit from Tomita Technologies. The focus is the glasses-free 3D technology present in the Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL handhelds. Following a jury decision, a United States federal judge has now set the amount that Nintendo must pay Tomita for each unit sold.
The judgment amounts to 1.82 percent of the wholesale price of each unit sold throughout the handheld’s life. This is on top of a $15 million damage award that Nintendo has already been ordered to provide.
The presiding judge rejected a flat rate amount as it would have represented an “unearthed windfall” for Tomita. The percentage-based award means that the royalty will scale with the price of the 3DS and 3DS XL, both of which will no doubt drop in the future.
[Source: Law 360 via Joystiq, Engadget]
Our Take
This is ruling is similar to the one we saw during the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 generation when Immersion sued both Microsoft and Sony over rumble in the controllers. Patent law is a powerful thing in the United States, even though we sometimes have a hard time weeding out the patent trolls from the truly wronged parties.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
