Tag: Legal - Page 6
News Nintendo May Have Eased Off On Its Claims To 'Let's Play' Ad Revenues
Popular YouTuber says he's making money on Nintendo content again
Last month we reported on Nintendo's move to put a block on 'Let's Play' videos on YouTube monetising any of its copyrighted content. Essentially, the company claimed the rights to any revenue generated from user-created video content that is long enough to get an advert placed at the...
News Nintendo Claiming Ad Revenue On YouTube User-Generated Gameplay Videos
"We continually want our fans to enjoy sharing Nintendo content on YouTube"
According to various reports from YouTube users, Nintendo is filing content ID claims against user-created "Let's Play" videos, which thereby prevents the user from monetizing their videos with adverts — allowing Nintendo to pocket all of the revenue. Most videos won't...
News Nintendo Wins Appeals Court Ruling In Wii Patent Case
Previous ITC ruling upheld
The US Court of Appeals has upheld a previous ruling by the International Trade Commission finding that Nintendo did not infringe on patents held by Motiva by importing its Wii console. Motiva held two patents relating to a setup for measuring user movement for the purposes of health and fitness. Back in 2008, the...
News Nintendo Accused Of Infringing Trademark With Wii U WaraWara Plaza
Restaurant owner Monteroza is less than happy
Restaurant chain owner Monteroza has filed a claim against Nintendo over the use of its "WaraWara Plaza" trademark. Monteroza — which operates 300 restaurants in the far east and runs a chain of Japanese-style public houses under the brand Wara-wara — filed a request with the Japanese Patent Office...
News Sega and Gearbox Sued By Irate Gamer Over "Misleading" Aliens: Colonial Marines Footage
In court, no one can hear you scream
When Sega canned the Wii U version of Aliens: Colonial Marines it probably hoped that it would draw a line under what has been an especially torrid project for the publisher. The highly-anticipated game launched on other formats to scathing reviews and nightmarish stories from people involved wi
News Nintendo's Legal Team Forces Mobile Dev To Make Lead Character Less Yoshi-Like
"We are cooperating with Nintendo about the changes required"
Smartphone clones of popular console titles are nothing new, but Android game Era's Adventure took shameless pillaging to an entirely new level; its lead character — by the developer's own admission — was Yoshi. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo's lawyers have been in touch and Era's...
News Nintendo Responds To Guilty Verdict In 3D Patent Case
"Nintendo is confident that the result will be set aside"
Nintendo has responded to the guilty verdict issued in its case against former Sony inventor Seijiro Tomita, who won $30.2 million in damages after insisting that Nintendo stole his idea for 3D display technology. The statement reads as follows: A jury awarded $30.2 million in damages to...
News Nintendo Loses 3D Patent Case Against Former Sony Inventor
Ordered to pay $30.2 million in damages
A few weeks ago, we reported that Nintendo was being taken to court by former Sony staffer Seijiro Tomita, who insisted that the Kyoto company stole his idea for glasses-free 3D screens and used it on the Nintendo 3DS. Tomita's claim was that he demonstrated the tech to Nintendo in 2003, and that several of...
News Level-5 Responds To SEGA's Legal Threats Regarding Inazuma Eleven
"We've concluded that there is no patent violation"
Japanese developer Level-5 has responded to SEGA's recent legal campaign to have the company remove its Inzauma Eleven series from sale due to an alleged patent infringement. SEGA is claiming that Level-5's soccer RPG features a touch-driven interface which violates two of its patents. The...
News SEGA Takes Legal Action Against Level-5 Over Nintendo DS Patent Dispute
Inazuma Eleven to blame?
In one of the strangest turn of events we've witnessed for a while, Japanese publisher SEGA is suing Professor Layton studio Level-5 over the use of touch control patents on the Nintendo DS handheld. Japanese news site Yomiuri Online broke the news, revealing that SEGA was taking action to protect two patents it had...
News Struggling Silicon Knights Ordered To Recall Unsold Games
X-Men Destiny May Become A Collector's Item
A while back we reported that Eternal Darkness developer Silicon Knights was effectively on the ropes, with less than five staff members remaining in the company. The outlook has just gotten significantly worse, as it has transpired that the Canadian studio has been ordered to recall most of its recent...
News Nintendo Faces Lawsuit Over 3DS Screen Patent Infringement
Here comes the science
The whole 3D-without-glasses deal is still pretty impressive several months after the 3DS launch, but Tomita Technologies isn't happy about seeing the tech turn up in Nintendo's latest portable, taking the company to court with claims of patent infringement. Seijiri Tomita, a veteran engineer who worked at Sony for 30 years,...
News High Court Outlaws Flash Carts in UK
Piracy? But that's not all they R4!
The R4 flash cart has been the bane of Nintendo's handheld existence for years now, with the device widely being used to play illegally downloaded DS ROMs. Rampant piracy has made it especially difficult for third-party developers to reach projected sales marks, and is also the reason non-Japanese-speaking gamers...
News Nintendo Wins Appeal in Controller Patents Case
No infringement going on here, Officer
You may remember (if you have a watertight memory) a lawsuit arising a few years ago between Nintendo, Microsoft and a third company named Anascape, who sued both hardware manufacturers for apparently infringing their patents. Anascape won that time, netting a cool $21m from Nintendo and an undisclosed sum from...
News Nintendo To Appeal French Flash Card Case
Company "extremely disappointed" with ruling
DS flash card manufacturer Divineo won big in France earlier this week, and Nintendo is not happy about it. A lawsuit filed by Nintendo against the company was thrown out in Paris’ Criminal Court earlier this week, with the judge saying that Nintendo should adopt a more open development system to allow...
News Nintendo vs R4: The Lawsuit and the Snitch
A very un-Harry Potter like snitch website opens to combat R4 and their brethren
A while ago Nintendo won a lawsuit against retailers that sold and distributed R4 and R4-like devices. In case you didn't know, these are essentially carts which allow consumers to pirate DS games. Since then, those retailers were sent notices updating them on the...
News GoldenEye Designer Backs Virtual Console Release
Martin Hollis would love to see 007 on the Wii...but also admits it's a legal minefield
The man behind GoldenEye - one of the most beloved N64 games of all time - has admitted that he'd love to see the game make it to the Virtual Console download service. Martin Hollis, formerly of Rare and now plying his trade at his own company Zoonami (Bonsai...
News "Wii Smile" Not Smiling Much Anymore
Swedish Dentist is forced to change name by Nintendo's crack team of lawyers
It's a classic "David vs. Goliath" battle. A small dental surgery in Malmö, Sweden up against a multi-million dollar video game giant. Sadly, in this case, Goliath won. Nintendo has taken legal action to force the surgery in question to change its name - which...
News Nintendo EU Price Fixing Fine is Reduced
They still have £107,000,000 left to pay, however
Back in 2002 it was revealed that during the 1990s Nintendo's European operation had been colluding with retailers to keep the price of its software and hardware artificially high. Such naughty-type action was brought to the attention of the European Commission and Nintendo was promptly slapped with...
Talking Point Copyright and Video Games
What is stopping us from experiencing the entire history of video games?
Last year Taito issued Space Invaders Get Even on the WiiWare download service as well as multiple versions of the original game on the Japanese, PAL and North American Virtual Consoles. This was in celebration of the 30th annivesary of the release of Space Invaders in arcades...
News Nyko Wireless Nunchuk - OBJECTION!
Nintendo isn't best pleased with "rip-off" design
We covered Nyko’s innovative wireless Nunchuk controller in a news piece some time ago and were generally pleased by the fact that a peripheral manufacturer had decided to fix one of the key problems with the Wii’s control setup – the pesky wire that keeps hitting you in the face as you...
News Hitachi And Sharp In Illegal DS Screen Cartel?
Shock! Horror! Hold the front page!
Scandal has rocked the very foundations of the Japanese consumer electronics industry as Hitachi and Sharp – the two companies tasked with producing those lovely little screens you have on your DS – found their offices raided by the Japanese Fair Trade Commission on suspicion of fixing the price of said...
News Commit A Crime - Bag A Wii
Err...
While most of you law abiding citizens are still struggling to either: afford the new Nintendo console, or; find the new Nintendo console in a shop, you might find it refreshing to know that foreign prisoners have access to the console whenever they desire.. Alongside being able to play Super Mario Galaxy the collection of foreign murderers,...
News Nintendo Breaking Patent Law With The Wiimote?
The latest courtroom drama from the US
It seems that both Sony and Nintendo may have a fight on their hands thanks to a patent dispute currently doing the rounds in the US. This follows on from Sony’s humiliating courtroom defeat at the hands of Immersion Corporation, which effectively cost the Japanese giant $100 million in damages and forced...
News Wii: Your Personal Murder Training Device
American comedian Jack Thompson has done it again, apparently the Wii acts as a training device that might prepare us for committing an offence.
"Florida retailers are scheduled to sell a very violent video game called Manhunt 2 which will be available, remarkably, for “play” on the kids-friendly Nintendo Wii gaming platform. The Wii device does...
Is the Nintendo Wii Remote a rip?
While the answer to the question is most probably NO! A small company with a patented mouse-like product believe otherwise. The company ‘Interlink’ applied for a patent in 1997 and successfully received it in back in 2005, which describes a device that is held in one hand, has a trigger, and also a features...
US Judge rejects a ban on Rockstar's latest smack-em-up "Bully" known in the UK as "Canis Canem Edit".
The US lawyer Jack Thompson attempted to get the game "Bully" banned from sale in Florida saying it was nothing more than a "Columbine simulator". The lawyer has a history of hate towards video games and seems to think they are the root of all...
News Nintendo & Microsoft Sued Over Patent Violation
US company Anascape are attempting to sue both gaming giants, claiming patent infringements on both suppliers controllers.
This isn't the first patent violation case in the games industry and surely won't be the last. The aim of the company claim is to seek damages and maybe even stop the companies using this technology in future. "A case in...
