The Gamevice saga continues. Not content with losing in their infringement case last month, Gamevice dredged their patent claims against Nintendo up again, in hopes of actually winning this time around. After filing with the United States International Trade Commission, the USITC will be moving forward by investigating the claims made by Gamevice that Nintendo is infringing upon their patent of a tablet system with detachable controllers. Previously, the Patent Trial and Appeal board threw out Gamevice's case after investigation, but this latest announcement means that while the merit of the case itself hasn't been determined, a judge will still be assigned to investigate the validity of the claims, even though the US Patent and Trademark Office already ruled that devices that attach video game controllers to tablets is "unpatentable".

By instituting this investigation (337-TA-1197), the USITC has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case. The USITC’s Chief Administrative Law Judge will assign the case to one of the USITC’s administrative law judges (ALJ), who will schedule and hold an evidentiary hearing. The ALJ will make an initial determination as to whether there is a violation of section 337; that initial determination is subject to review by the Commission.

Source

 

[x65943]

Burn it, film it, make money buy more burn them make even more money, get sued for slander win case. Stonks

Those little bastards cost a lot of money tho :V

 

[HarveyHouston]

Go away, Gamevice. Nobody likes you!

(No real violence implied)

 

[GBADWB]

If anyone is curious, it primarily speaks to the U.S sales of the product.

Wikipad filed for their patent in the U.S long before Nintendo filed for theirs in the U.S

This is basically nintendo's fault for not filing for the design in advance in a market where they have official business in. Nintendo waited an extra year post sales to do so.

 

[raxadian]

Technically speaking at least they made a device that works even if making games work with it is hard.

I find the patent system in the USA to be really stupid, you literally can patent stuff that already exists if you reword things a bit.

Heck the Wiimote was just a remote control, you know the thing TV's had for many decades already? And Nintendo still got sued over it.

 

[SSG Vegeta]

Good bye & good riddance game losers

 

[HideoKojima]

If I knew these guys were patent trolls I would have never bought their stuff. I regret buying it anyway - have barely used it in the past 2 years since I bought it.

You bought it for Mario Odyssey

 

[x65943]

You bought it for Mario Odyssey

I meant the gamevice but nice try

 

[HideoKojima]

I meant the gamevice but nice try

Lol I thought u were referring to the switch. Honestly for me after playing Odyssey the rest wasn't as good, most of switch games are ports..

 

[Kubas_inko]

You can't patent a design. You can trademark it.

 

[GBADWB]

You can't patent a design. You can trademark it.

Design Patents and Trademarks are completely different things, and is enforced differently. Trademarks have to be constantly be in use in order to be used to sell something (a trademark is always attached to some product, and is usually not the product itself). A design patent is a 2d or 3d design that lasts up to 15 years upon grant.

Design patent = the design is the product you are selling. Trademark = a design used to sell a specific product (e.g a character based snack or toy)

 

[guisadop]

unfortunately that's the kind of stuff they can't win. big corporations like nintendo would never lose simply because they're too big

 

[Purple_Heart]

F..... Gamevice

 

[RedBlueGreen]

They should really be careful with these frivolous patent suits. Sooner or later they're going to get a very bad reputation and their cases will be thrown out immediately.

I remember hearing about some random woman who made thousands of frivolous lawsuits and now she's not allowed to file civil suits against anyone. If they're not careful something similar could happen, I wouldn't be surprised if at the very least they end up being held in contempt of court.