Small-Time Company Sues Nintendo, Sony, MSFT

[Abrahm]

I thought patents were to protect you from people copying the products you were making... Seems patents are really for buying ideas and then sueing other companies when they come out with similar products. This crap has to stop.

 

[Guest]

It has nothing to do with "just now noticing". It has to do with $$$. If they filed their suit the day Sony/Nintendo/MS released their wireless products, there would only be a few thousand sold, so the damages they could be awarded in the courtroom will be small. By waiting a few years, these companies have now sold millions of units, so Eleven Engineering can now claim far FAR larger damages and potentially be awarded TONS more money. They certainly didn't "just now notice".

 

[JonathanDeane]

Really odd, I remember the Atari 2600 having wireless controllers a while back and I had some wireless controllers for my NES. There must be something more specific they are suing over rather then that its just wireless.

 

[KT_WASP]

For all you people calling this company a "patent troll"...or whatever, If you designed a technology, patented it and then someone else made millions of dollars off of it.. you would be in court too. it is apparent that MS, Sony, Nintendo.. and most likely many more, have infringed upon this patent.

There are three main categories for patents:

Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof;
Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture; and
Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.

When you submit a patent, there is a board of officials that examine your submission. If there is no current patent on file for your idea/design, then they will grant you a patent. You must maintain your patent by paying fees. They will grant your a 10 or 20 year patent, which can be renewed at the end of its term.

its plain, its simple.

So before some of you people spout off about "patent trolls".. do yourself a favor and read the patent procedures and laws before you comment. Because until you do, the only "Troll" here is you.

 

[Guest]

Well KT_Wasp why many call the patent system broken is because what a lot of companies or firms do is buy up thousands of patents or hire people to brainstorm hundreds of patents then they sue the pants off anyone who comes up with a similar idea, or offer to sell the patent to them for ridiculous prices. If a company can't show anything for a patent they own, then others should have the right to step in. Patents eliminate competition (unless your a company with enough money to buy the patents), and in the end they're really only hurting us the consumer and individual inventors who can't do anything out of fear of being sued...

 

[reddragon72]

I have a just put in a patent on how to sue another company for patent infringement. Can't wait to rake in the money on that one!

 

[Lavacon]

I'm sorry Mr Wasp, but, while that is the process, that doesn't mean that's how the patent will actually go down. Have you read some of these patents people have then sued upon. Some of these patents are more vague than a bad criminals alibi. It's pathetic and the system is broken. It hinders progress and creativity. I have seen better run pyramid schemes than the US Patent system, only the pyramid schemes are more legit.

 

[zak_mckraken]

You guys don't know how suing trolls work. It's like poker. You don't just raise on the first turn! You have to get the suckers in so the pot gets bigger. Same here. Pattent something obvious, wait a few years so companies who actually do something make a lot of money with a similar product and THEN you sue and claim your "share"!

It's been said over and over, and it will be said for the next couple of years: the US patent system if more flawed than a pre-Jasper 360.

 

[hellwig]

RF Frequencies and wireless controllers? You've got to be kidding me. Ever since the wire was invented, people have been trying to come up with a way to remove the wire (and Eleven Engineering did not invent RF communication). I think the only difference between a wired Playstation remote and a wireless is where the USB chip normally resides, it's replaced with a RF chip (and the power-lines diverted to the battery case). That's not an invention, that's common sense.

Now, if the RF chips used by Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft are cheap, unlicensed Taiwanese knockoffs of a chip Eleven Engineering developed, that's a different story.

 

[megamanx00]

IR controllers were around long before that, but I'm pretty sure there were some RF wireless controllers before 2001. This just sounds like a case of bad patents gumming up the legal system.

 

[doomtomb]

Nobody cares about you Eleven Engineering. Big companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft are always the target of lawsuits. It's gettin old.

 

[hakesterman]

No Judge is going to award them anything now. If they wanted to get a piece of the pie, they should of
made their case when the consoles launched or before. The Judge will probably laugh him or herself to sleep on this one.

 

[techguy378]

Eleven Engineering, get bent. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft should counter sue Eleven Engineering for being a nuisance.

 

[JonathanDeane]

[citation][nom]megamanx00[/nom]IR controllers were around long before that, but I'm pretty sure there were some RF wireless controllers before 2001. This just sounds like a case of bad patents gumming up the legal system.[/citation]

Check em out they where big they where bulky and they chewed up batteries like no tomorrow but they worked well.

http/www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2600/2600rc.html


I am not sure what year they came out but I think I remember playing them around 1984 or so (I was pretty young at the time).

 

[KT_WASP]

I get thumbs down, told to stuff it and so on....

Eleven engineering have been making these wireless modules for years. So, no.. it is not some fake patent. They designed the product and make the product.

The wireless game controllers and the modules that are in them were patented in 2001 by Eleven Engineering. It is not just some random wireless control module... it is a specific module that functions in a specific way. This module was filed for patent in 1998-1999.. well before your Xbox, PS3 and Wii. It took 2-3 years for the design of this module to be granted a patent.

I read the patents and all of the information within them. I think they have a case.

And Raid3r:

Plant patents pertain to the manipulation of plants through gene splicing to create new plants used for food and so on. This is a legitimate patent as the "inventor" has created a new strain of plant life.

I guess that went over your head

 

[kikireeki]

What's with the Lawsuit fever these days?

 

[athreex]

[citation][nom]kikireeki[/nom]What's with the Lawsuit fever these days?[/citation]

I agree. Lawsuits are the new red. Still, it might be wrong to ignore that there are hundreds and hundreds of lawsuits everyday in every part of the world.

LoL, The title gave me a couple of laughs. Small Time Company hehe.
it sounds like We-don't-know-you Company sues big-uber-brands companies.

On the other hand, I think they took quite a while to proceed with this lawsuit.

 

[swamprat]

KT_Wasp, I agree that there may be a valid case and it's not simply that all those who make claims for infringement are trolls. I can't say I've looked at the patent as you claim to have done, but the way it's meant to work (as far as I understand it) is that to avoid prior art being an issue the patents generally end up being relatively specific and so need to be inventive.
It falls down ethically if someone has a vague idea and manages to protect it despite having no intention of advancing that and just tries to profit off of others doing so; or if the patents get granted without proper prior art checks (as seems to be the case for a lot of 'patent troll' complaints).

Is the patent in question distinguished from the Atari controllers in JonathanDeane's post / TV remotes and if so is it still wide enough to catch the various controllers mentioned in their challenges?

 

[eccentric909]

[citation][nom]swamprat[/nom]Is the patent in question distinguished from the Atari controllers in JonathanDeane's post / TV remotes and if so is it still wide enough to catch the various controllers mentioned in their challenges?[/citation]

I believe the older wirless controllers were mostly IR based, instead of radio frequency. I could be wrong here, but I remember my early wireless controllers (hated them, since you still had to sit directly in front of the IR receiver) were all IR based.

 

[sublifer]

[citation][nom]h0llow[/nom] so your saying this small crap company JUST noticed dualshock and others that has been out for years and NOW is taking action? i call bullshit. just another company trying to scam money out of companies to compensate for their products that never made it.[/citation]
Chances are its a patent lawyer that found it and wants a sizable chunk of the settlement and thus approached the patent holding company. Filthy ambulance chaser type lawyers!!!