Despite a last-ditch motion for judgment in its favor, Nintendo of America Inc. was ordered to pay a small patent holder more than 20 million dollars for infringing U.S. Reg. No. 6,906,700 the Associated Press reported on May 15.
In 9:06-CV-00158-RC filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, a jury rejected Nintendo’s argument that Anascape Ltd.’s patent for a “3D Controller With Vibration” was not valid due to being obvious in view of the Sony Dual Shock2 controller which had preceded it. The jury determined that, although Nintendo’s motion-sensing technology did not infringe Anascape’s patent claims, the Nintendo device as a whole did operate with six degrees of freedom and, therefore, accomplished the same thing in essentially the same way as the Anascape game controller.
A formal judgment is expected to be released soon. TECHNASAURUSLEX is curious because its review of pleadings in the case as well as the AP Press report suggests the doctrine of equivalents is not on the decline as some have argued and, further, that the recent expansion of the obviousness doctrine by the U.S. Supreme Court in KSR v. Teleflex has not impaired the ability of patent holders to win infringement actions as many had feared.