As the latest lawsuit to be leveled against video game hardware manufacturers, Richardson, Texas based Fenner Investments has filed suit against Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo for infringing on the company's patent number 6,297,751 for a "low-voltage joystick port interface."
The patent, filed in 1998 and later awarded in 2001, is summarized: “The joystick port interface according the present invention is a low power port which interfaces a typical 5 Volt joystick peripheral device with a lower power computer port. The low-voltage joystick port interface includes a bidirectional buffer circuit and a pulse generator which, together, generate a digital pulse signal, representing a joystick coordinate position, based on an input analog measurement signal.”
The lawsuit from Fenner Investments was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, seeks damages and an injunction against Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo for each company's willful infringement of the patent.
While none of the three console manufacturers are strangers to being sued over their products, it is perhaps Sony, with its well documented court battle with Immersion Corporation over rumble technology that stands out as the most recent similar case as the one brought by this latest lawsuit. That suit by Immersion was also later extended to Microsoft, which was then settled in 2003, while Sony has continued its battle Immersion, with oral arguments having been heard in a DC appeals court just this week.
News source: Gamasutra
View: Discussion Forum
The patent, filed in 1998 and later awarded in 2001, is summarized: “The joystick port interface according the present invention is a low power port which interfaces a typical 5 Volt joystick peripheral device with a lower power computer port. The low-voltage joystick port interface includes a bidirectional buffer circuit and a pulse generator which, together, generate a digital pulse signal, representing a joystick coordinate position, based on an input analog measurement signal.”
The lawsuit from Fenner Investments was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, seeks damages and an injunction against Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo for each company's willful infringement of the patent.
While none of the three console manufacturers are strangers to being sued over their products, it is perhaps Sony, with its well documented court battle with Immersion Corporation over rumble technology that stands out as the most recent similar case as the one brought by this latest lawsuit. That suit by Immersion was also later extended to Microsoft, which was then settled in 2003, while Sony has continued its battle Immersion, with oral arguments having been heard in a DC appeals court just this week.
News source: Gamasutra View: Discussion Forum
No doubt the demands will be in the millions.
No doubt the demands will be in the millions.
I'm not a gamer in any form, and don't own any consoles what so ever. But if the patent system is there so you can "own" something, then earn money from it by other companies paying you to use it... why not sue if it's not happening? Granted they should've done it LONG ago, but meh. There's no point in having a patent system if nobody else is going to respect it.
my
Christ.
Zing! I hate the RIAA too.
That was going to be my exact point. This patent in the description on this site anyway seems to sound like an analog stick, something found on an N64 controller 2 years before the patent was applied for.
Nintendo can EASILY claim prior art.
And I bet the company knows it too, but are hoping to get a settlement out of at least one of the companies before it goes to court.
in the original apple II the same circuit was used for the joysticks. the apple used i believe a 558 quad timer and then set up a software loop to do the actual counting
for a patent to be issued about an idea to an individual 2 decades after its first use is ludicrous.
nolen bushnell or steve wozniac should own that patent
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