Last month, we heard how Nintendo had won a lengthy legal battle against the peripherals manufacturer Gamevice, who accused Nintendo of America and Nintendo Co. Ltd in Japan of violating its patent on a "combination computing device and game controller" with a "flexible bridge section".
At the time, it was thought to be game over for Gamevice, but it appears not. According to Bloomberg Law, the company has gone and filed a new patent-infringement complaint against Nintendo and has also appealed the case it previously lost.
It claims Nintendo infringed a patent it was issued in August for a game controller and is now once again asking the US to block all imports of the Switch. If the International Trade Commission agrees to investigate the issue, another legal battle is likely to kick off.
[source gonintendo.com]
Comments 76
These people at Gamevice just do not give up, do they?
sighs and facepalms
These people just don't learn do they?...
LOL
Here we go again.
Gamevice seems arrogant. They just don't give up, do they?
I guess when your own product is so irrelevant, you just have your legal team play roulette and hope to win big.
Nintendo is always up for winning more court battles.
How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?
@Savino First of all, I doubt they care about the hate they'd receive. But beyond that, I'm sure if they somehow won this court case, they presumably wouldn't actually block the import of Switches. Nintendo would be forced to pay them some kind of licensing fee for the use of "their" patent. If they really did try to shut down the Switch, it's not like their failed system would suddenly come back to life and start selling.
@TheFox I honestly believe that they are trying to "Intimidate" Nintendo into paying them shares of the sales for the Switch. I believe their end goal is to profit off the Switch sales, and not to block the Switch imports altogether.
Stop. Get some help.
Happy April fools day!
Lol, April fools! People be falling for this stuff like cray-cray.
We need some major reforms at the least to patent laws.
Gamevice: Stop!
Nintendo: HAMMER TIME!
@Kirbster1992 Well they are facing bankruptcy so this is probably their last ditch effort.
Hey maybe they're just buying advertisement with court fees
These guys again? Stupid morons...
Nice April Fool's prank, Gamevice.
How can they afford all the legal fees?
When they lose, Nintendo should counter sue them for the legal fees.
And if there were grounds for it, wasted time. (I know that's not a thing but in this case it should be.)
Ah Sh*t, here we go again.
I hope gamevice goes bankrupt and loses they are really ticking me off.
Just leave Nintendo alone, for how long they will keep doing this?
How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?
I hate hate hate patent trolls.
Interesting that they think their garbage product can compare to Nintendo's.
@NotTelevision these companies have lawyers on payroll. Win or lose a lawsuit doesn't matter to them. They still make their money.
@GrandScribe We do, but these laws are about billions of dollars. Changing them is almost impossible.
How do these idiots even have the money to fund these endless lawsuits? Truly baffling.
What will happen now is that many will buy a switch before this case is over, by that time Switch invaded every home 🤣
Seriously patent trolls?
I feel like Nintendo Lawyers/Ninja start sharpening ninjato and kunai when they get news like this.
That Gamevice device looks so clunky. Surely their time (and money) would be better served riding the Switch wave and evolving their own tech into something more appealing to the mobile audience. There is opportunity in any given circumstance, but filing yet another lawsuit just comes across as the path of least resistance (let the lawyers do all the work.) Depressing.
Not even Donald Trump would block switch imports and he’s an idiot.
If I can offer a counter argument;
If Gamevice think their patent has been infringed or their idea stolen by Nintendo, they have every right to take it to court. That's not unreasonable is it?
By moaning about it and even hoping they go bankrupt and lose their livelihoods, you're effectively saying it's ok for big companies to steal ideas.
Are you really saying that if you invented and patented something today you should have no right to defend it when it's stolen? That's an extremely worrying and frankly childish mentality.
I'm not saying Gamevice are in the right. But if they think they are , they should be fighting it.
I'm still on the lookout for the April fools story, could this be it?
They will probably have better chances at suing Razer for their Junglecat and Kishi mobile phone controllers.
Ugh, can this suit please just be tossed out on grounds of redundancy?
This has to be a Apral Fools day joke.. thay can not be this Stupid... then again thay culd be... if that is the case Nintendo needs to just counter sue them for spurious clames and be done with it take them for everything there worth.. wich is probably very little at this point.
Storm PussyVice's Twitter. They can't stop us all. https://twitter.com/Gamevice
Wow, the money they’re just throwing away here...
@TheFox that's OK Nintendo would just make the Switch Lite the exclusive model in America so they still wouldn't get eff all off them
@Incarta no you're absolutely right they are within their rights to do it if Nintendo are infringing copyright the thing is Nintendo aint infringing copyright, Nintendos Joy Con is a propitiatory device only designed to work on the Switch where as Gamevices device is a add on for a mobile phone, the only thing the have in common is that they snap onto something else
plus they already lost the case once so it's futile to try again
April Fool's or not, this is hilariously sad.
@FullbringIchigo That did occur to me, but I think they'd be risking losing to many sales. I don't know how many people are like me, but if the Switch Lite was the only model, I would not have bought one. I'm pretty sure most companies, even Nintendo, would choose profit over protest. But I really don't think the lawsuit has a chance (and assuming it's not an April fools joke).
They are really going to use every last dime and knickle they had just to sue Nintendo? Well good luck, hopefully they survive the pandemic.
@BAN The ITC is a government agency. So our tax dollars are funding it.
@lfnagata Until they get told to stop wasting the legal system's time.
@Discostew
Nintendo fanbase: Grab the torches and pitchforks again.
@Savino They had stopped uploading videos on their YouTube channel 2 years ago was when their last video was. After they disabled ratings and comments their Facebook and Twitter got bombarded. If they left Nintendo alone they'd not get hate. They started the backlash and no one sides with them. They'll run and hide. The internet never forgets.
@TheFox oh i completely agree but at least it's an option in the worse case scenario
@generalgorilla19 That’s true in that the government has to field and administrate on lawsuits. But they’re not the ones actually funding the lawsuit itself. It costs a ton of money to file and pursue complaints like this, both in attorney’s fees (or compensation if they’re in-house) and court fees. And it’s surprising to me that these guys would have the capability or the desire to keep funding these things.
@Incarta The article states they infringed on a patent from August... The Switch has been out since 2017. This is obviously an April Fool's joke, to which the only fool is the one who still celebrates the day. I didn't think anyone beyond the 5th grade was immature enough to paint themselves in this light.
My goodness please be satire
@Incarta if their product was actually a good product then it wouldnt be an issue. The only time when patents actually do anything is when someone develops a meh product or a good product at a high price and someone makes a better version or the same thing but at a lower cost. If their product was good and at a reasonable price then people would buy it and likely skip clones.
Patents generally do more harm than good as companies will patent anything they can to prevent anyone else from developing it without paying them ridiculous fees. Look at 3d printers. The tech has been around for quite some time but didn't take off for consumers until the patents expired around 2010 or so. The result of those patents expiring? You can now buy a decent 3d printer for your home use for about $250 instead of $10,000 or more. The patents just made it so a few companies had very very little competition and could jack prices to the extreme.
@Heavyarms55 you don't counter sure for legal fees. You're awarded them by the judge/jury at their discretion, you could for sanctions on Gamevice if the court finds the lawsuit baseless
@Incarta also it's not like Nintendo doesn't swing the copyright hammer on every fan art project or 3D adaptation ever.
@Dannokay Is that how it works? I fully admit I don't know squat about it.
They can try as hard as they want. It won't be worth it either way.
Guys, this doesn't appear to be an April fool's joke.
The Bloomberg article appears to be legit.
Turns out, Gamevice REALLY IS that stupid.
@Savino it’ll never come to that. If they win, Nintendo will pay them a royalty and that’s it.
The US patent system is far to arbitrary and the system needs to change (not that it will). But under current rules I do think Gamevice have a case so can’t blame them to trying.
It’s funny how desperate they are.
Wow, they really like wasting everyone's time, huh? That's just sad. They won't get a dime from Nintendo, and they won't get a dime from me either.
"If we can block the sales of the Nintendo Switch in the U.S., they'll love us instead and buy our system?" That's some really sh*tty business logic.
Ehhh attaching an accessories to a tablet isn't ground breaking. They already attach bluetooth keyboards, cases, and other stuff to tablets & phones. Inventor of the game controller, D-pad & analog sticks should sue Gamevice.
Well, it seems like during these trying times the lawyers are still making money.
@Incarta agreed. The mob mentality in every portion of the current environment is troubling. Live & let live, geez.
@Souljasam there are good arguments on both sides of whether patents should exist, imho. A balance needs to be struck, but as with all things government, it'll never get done correctly.
@GoblinKing86 the source article (below) was written on 3-31-2020. How often are April fools jokes done in March? This wasn't that hard to check, fwiw.
Parentheses removed the hyperlink, so here's the link in case people wanted to verify (because it's unlikely most would take the time to copy/paste the addy from where I had it before):
https://gonintendo.com/stories/358324-gamevice-yet-again-aims-to-block-u-s-imports-of-switch-with-anot
@Incarta
No patent and copyright laws are supposed to protect specific executions of unique ideas. They were never meant to be broad all encompassing protections for any idea no matter how vague, broad, or simple they may be. What gamevice is doing is a blatant abuse of patent law and they deserve to be shamed for it.
Throw the lot of them in jail for wasting everyone's time when clearly
A: they are full of sh*t
B: wasting time and resources when there's a global pandemic
@Heavyarms55 best idea is for attempted defamation.
@JayJ Figures.
@patbacknitro18 How can I like a comment more than once?
@RPGamer lol
@monterxz i know right? unfortunately razer's controller is in partnership with GAMEVICE. I think they should cut their ties. Gamevice is just terribly selfish to sue nintendo
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