Nintendo files $40 Million Dollar lawsuit against Japanese mobile game company "Colopl"

lawsuit.jpg


Colopl is a Japanese mobile game company that has been running Shiro Neko Project, a pretty successful Action-RPG, since 2014 in Japan. The game was marketed as a true "one-finger RPG", allowing players, as the name suggests, to play the game with one finger. It uses an emulated analogue stick to accomplish tasks such as moving the character, attacking and using skills.

Nothing unusual, right? Well, it seems Nintendo doesn't think so as it filed a lawsuit against Colopl—three years after Shiro Neko Project's release, and after a year-long negotiations attempt between the companies—for violating five tech patent rights, and is asking for $40,000,000 in damages. One of these patents involve operating a joystick over a touch screen. Details are lacking since the lawsuit is fresh and everything official is in Japanese, but it is speculated Nintendo may be referring to the emulated analogue stick used in Super Mario 64 DS as an optional control method.

thumbpad.jpg

It's rather strange Nintendo specifically targets Colopl's game since there are A LOT of games that make use of an emulated joystick. It may be Shiro Neko Project uses a technique that too closely resembles the one used in Super Mario 64 DS. As said, details are scarce and there may be more to it. The other four patents Nintendo claims to have been violated are unknown at this time. The document provided by Colopl may contain more information, but it is Japanese. Maybe users who understand Japanese can help? Edit: No new information.

In any event, Colopl provided a statement claiming those assertions are unfair. Time will tell how this story will develop.

:arrow: Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4
 
Last edited by WiiUBricker,

KingVamp

Haaah-hahahaha!
Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
13,474
Trophies
2
Location
Netherworld
XP
7,886
Country
United States
Sounds kind of weird, tbh. Kind of like they are lashing out after being sued themselves. :P

Anyway, even if they are in the right, that's a lot of money just for this. After looking at the video, reminds me of Zelda Hourglass too, but still doesn't look like much to patent over.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Subtle Demise

RedBlueGreen

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2015
Messages
2,026
Trophies
1
XP
2,538
Country
Canada
Sorry Nintendo but you don't own on screen buttons. Should any company who made a touch screen device that used a stylus be suing Nintendo? Should tablet manufacturers be suing Nintendo? The answer is clearly no. This is just Nintendo being greedy. If Nintendo wins this thing I hope another company sues them over something to teach them a lesson. Or that this company sues and wins.
Where was Nintendo when chrono trigger was ported to iOS? Unlike this company, square enix actually has 40 million to lose.
Square Enix probably owns the IP. Nintendo probably only holds the copyright for the SNES version.
 
Last edited by RedBlueGreen,

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: Did you pee in the water