Dave Horvath
11 Jan 2007 7:23
Pathological lawsuit junky firm Fenner Investments out of Richardson Texas is at it again. Fenner was once made slightly famous for their claims against such companies as Alcatel, Cisco and Nokia in saying each firm violated Fenner's copyrights by stealing their "method and aparatus for managing a communications network for mobile users". All proceedings of those lawsuit attempts were either lost or thrown out of court. It seems like now, Fenner is upset with a certain trio of game console developers.
Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have all become the latest target for Fenner Investements. Fenner now claims that the controllers used on each of the three company's designs utilize a method that was patented by their company some time ago. Taken in part from the court document, the claim states the following patented method was infringed upon. "The joystick port interface includes an integrated circuit receiving an analog joystick position measurement signal and outputting a digital pulse signal to a processor which signifies a joystick coordinate value. The integrated circuit includes a pulse generator and a bidirectional buffer circuit. The bidirectional buffer circuit receives the analog joystick position measurement signal and selectively discharges an RC network capacitor which provides this analog measurement. This implementation provides a joystick port which uses low-voltage CMOS VLSI structures which can interface a conventional high-voltage joystick with the processor."
If you're now rubbing your head on that description, it basically says that the action of pressing a button on a controller to send a signal to the game unit is a patented method. So, everytime a gamer presses a button on their gaming system, they are helping the big developers infringe upon Fenner's rights.
Pleading with the court system, Fenner issued this, "Each of the Defendants’ acts of infringement has caused damage to Fenner, and Fenner is entitled to recover from each Defendant the damages sustained by Fenner as a result of their individual wrongful acts in an amount subject to proof at trial. Each of the Defendants’ infringement of Fenner’s exclusive rights under the ‘751 Patent will continue to damage Fenner’s business, causing irreparable harm, for which there is no adequate remedy at law, unless it is enjoined by this Court."
If this is taken literally, I can only imagine how many "button mashing" games will be brought into question. If the lawsuit is rewarded for a certain amount per infraction, its hard to see how any of the three companies would be allowed to remain in business. No statements have been made by any of the console giants as of yet.
Source:
Playfuls