Nintendo Dodges $30 Million Payment in 3DS Patent Case

Nintendo is known for a wide range of hardware, from their N64s and Wiis to the Gameboys and 3DSs. When it comes to innovation Nintendo has a long history of creating consoles that people think won’t work or may not even be liked, and its history is that these consoles tend to do surprisingly well. Back in 2011, the 3DS was released and Nintendo was hit by a lawsuit that could have cost them over $30 million, a case that has now been overturned.

The claim was originally made by Seijiro Tomita and Tomita Technologies back in 2011 with claims he was owed $9.80 from every 3DS sale and with over 58 million systems sold Nintendo would have had to pay a lot of money ($30.2 million) after losing a patent lawsuit in 2013.

The federal court has now overturned this ruling, saving Nintendo the money and also helping protect their “innovative” technology. As part of their statement Nintendo explained:

“Judge Rakoff’s ruling follows Nintendo’s successful appeal of an earlier verdict, and is the result of a 2015 re-trial. This decision fully reverses and corrects a 2013 verdict against Nintendo. Specifically, Judge Rakoff found that the Nintendo 3DS performs in a significantly different way and does more than was contemplated by the Tomita patent.”

The result is a win for Nintendo who “aggressively defend patent lawsuits when our products do not infringe”, and with the former Sony employee Tomita saying that he revealed the prototype to Nintendo in 2003 and now it would appear that it wasn’t close enough to how Nintendo brought 3D to your handheld games consoles.