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,

Axido

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Except it isn’t. Stop making stuff up for a quick troll attempt and pay more attention to what was written.

The OP sure seems different now from what I read earlier. :ph34r:

Just kidding, though what about the lawsuit being in Japanese? Maybe I didn't understand that correctly, but that's what I referred to.
 
Last edited by Axido,

WiiUBricker

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The OP sure seems different now from what I read earlier. :ph34r:

Just kidding, though what about the lawsuit being in Japanese? Maybe I didn't understand that correctly, but that's what I referred to.
Again, pay more attention. The date of your post was yesterday. The last edit date of the OP was wednesday.

The document provided from Colopl is in japanese which has been google translated minutes after the OP was posted and proven to not contain anything new. I at least considered the possibility that the document may provide new information unlike other news outlets that chose to completely ignore it.
 
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Might be worth noting a patent only applies in the country it is filed. The company could be infringing a patent that Nintendo has only filed in Japan.
 

FAST6191

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Might be worth noting a patent only applies in the country it is filed. The company could be infringing a patent that Nintendo has only filed in Japan.
While in this case it probably is just Japan that is tricky.
Many places will have international filing options. Europe tends to have individual states with their own patents for their own countries but there is also the European patent office which covers lots. Australia and New Zealand have something ( https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/abou...torney-regulatory-regime-new-zealand-commence ) and there are some similar arrangements the world over between closely related countries.
Technically there is also an international filing option of a sort called the PCT but that is weak enough/hard enough to pull off to ignore it here. Going further there are all sorts of international laws regarding filing dates and how things might get backdated.
 

YuseiFD

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Except it seems this is a patent case. Unless you are making an argument that patenting of software is tantamount to copyright of ideas, in which case tell me more.
I have no idea how to explain this, but in this case, nintendo is doing the old "i did it first hurr!!!!1!!11!!1" case.
 

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