Nintendo wins lawsuit regarding handheld patent

Nintendo has emerged victorious after a company claimed that the platform holder’s handheld consoles infringed on its patent.

The Quintal Research Group nailed down a patent in 2008 for a ‘computerized information retrieval system’.

Such a system, the patent proposes, is described as having a generally rectangular shape, with a display screen on one side that has a frame with an ergonomic placement of finger controls including a pair of thumb controls on the top of the display with at least one of the finger controls being a cursor or pointer control”.

One might argue that the description might vaguely apply to Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance, DS and 3DS handhelds or, indeed, any of the various portable consoles released over the last three decades.

Quintal did, in fact, believe this, telling Nintendo about the patent at the beginning of 2009 and subsequently going on to offer the company a license to produce such a system four times by the end of May. Nintendo cut the talks short in July of the same year.

Four years later, in early 2013, Quintal filed a lawsuit against Nintendo, seeking compensation for the damages and costs that Nintendo’s rejection of the license that apparently caused the firm.

Now the US courts have deemed Quintal’s claims to be unworthy of recompense (via Game Set Watch).

"The result in this case continues to prove that Nintendo will vigorously defend its innovations against patent lawsuits and will not pay to settle cases simply to avoid litigation," said Devon Pritchard, general counsel and SVP of business affairs for Nintendo of America.

Pritchard added criticism of the current patent system, highlighting Nintendo’s various ongoing legal disputes as a sign that reforms are needed.

"Nintendo continues to support patent reform efforts that reduce the unnecessary and inefficient burden cases like this one place on technology companies in the United States."