Nintendo launched its 3DS portable console earlier this year with the main new feature being its 3D graphics that don"t need glasses to view. Now a US-Japan company is claiming that Nintendo has violated its patents concerning that particular features. According to Patent Arcade, the company doing the suing is Tomita Technologies. The lawsuit itself was filed on June 22 in New York.
The lawsuit claims that Nintendo has violated one of Tomita Technologies"s many patents. Specifically the patent is U.S. Patent No. 7,417,664, otherwise known as "Stereoscopic Image Picking Up and Display System Based Upon Optical Axes Cross-Point Information." The patent was first applied for in 2008 and concerns "technology relating to displaying stereoscopic images on-screen for viewing with the naked eye, i.e., without utilizing glasses or other devices."
Tomita Technologies alleges that the Nintendo 3DS console is infringing on its patent for its 3D technology. However the lawsuit did not go into detail on how the 3DS console infringes on Tomita"s patent. So far Nintendo has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
First announced back in March 2010, the Nintendo 3DS console was first shown to the public at E3 in June 2010. It is the latest portable console in the DS line which began with the original Nintendo DS in late 2004. The 3DS console launched in Japan in February 2011 and in the US and other parts of the world in March 2011. However the initial sales of the 3DS console have not yet met Nintendo"s own expectations.