Nintendo Sued for Switch Design - What's a Gamevice

Article Here.

A maker of paired game controllers for mobile devices is suing Nintendo over the design of the detachable Joy-Con controllers for its Switch console. The suit, filed on Wednesday in California, alleges Nintendo infringed on a patent first filed in 2012 by Wikipad, Inc., now known as Gamevice.

The patent describes a “pair of control modules” attached to a “separate and distinct” computing device. The idea was the basis for the Wikipad, an Android gaming tablet with detachable controllers that was released in 2013. The device received mixed reviews and is no longer on the market.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

In addition to seeking damages, Gamevice wants Nintendo to halt sales of the Switch, claiming that the Switch “has caused, and is continuing to cause, damage and irreparable injury to Gamevice.” Gamevice’s claim of harm would be central to any decision to halt Switch sales. While the Wikipad is no longer around to compete with the Switch, Gamevice is now focused on making peripheral game controllers for phones and tablets, and there’s at least an argument that the Switch is competing with those devices.

But courts have shown some reluctance in recent years to issue patent-related sales injunctions, even when infringement is found in two directly competing products. In a broadly similar case, Apple in 2011 alleged that Samsung had infringed on several of its patents, including design patents. Though it won its patent case, Apple was long denied an injunction to force Samsung to stop marketing the infringing features. A limited and largely moot version of that injunction was later granted.

Gamevice raised a reported $12.5 million from investors in May as the market for mobile gaming continues to grow.

so slidey accessories will get you sued now
cool
Didn't know where to put this, so feel free to move if in the wrong category

 

[Hodor]

nintendo gets sued by patent trolls all the damn time, nothing comes of it.

 

[Diagonally slanted shelf]

The concept might be similar, but it looks nothing like the Switch. It's just one of those Android tablets with a controller.

 

[TowinKarz]

It's just like how every time a sci-fi movie comes out, some nerd crawls out of the woodwork and tries to sue because they copied an idea he kinda maybe sorta had in a fanfiction he wrote 20 years ago wherein walking computers threaten our vital liberties....

 

[MeatRokket08]

Gamevice is way out of its league.

 

[The Lawgiver]

When looking up gamevice in google some of the first results are articles talking about how it's "less clunky than the Wii U gamepad"

Spoiler: iPad version next to wii U I found on google images

 

[Feline Darkmage]

less clunky

paid shills

 

[The Lawgiver]

paid shills

Granted the article was talking about the iPhone version, but yeah there was probably money involved. It literally looks like a bootleg Wii U.

 

[Dysnomia]

This reminds me of the "Edge" troll who made a completely non-existent piece of vaporware (some kind of USB stick or something) that had a page you couldn't even order from despite being set up like one. And he threatened to sue any game or electronics company that wanted to use the word "edge". Then he got a beat down from EA's lawyers and that derailed his patent troll train permanently. I remember NISA had a problem with him a few years ago.

These patent trolls are everywhere trying to make money for stuff they haven't put in any effort for in the first place. Ben Franklin was against patents. He refused to patent the Franklin stove even though it was revolutionary for its time. He felt that if someone thought they could improve on his design then they should do so unheeded. Personally, I have mixed feelings about patents. I understand the need to protect a certain design or formula. But at the same time it causes all sorts of problems like this. Not to mention the drug patents that keep prices up for years. I think that in many cases patents can slow down innovation.

he patent describes a “pair of control modules” attached to a “separate and distinct” computing device.

That could be anything. If it's the slide out technology that's been around before. Nintendo just updated it. Didn't some of the Game & Watch games have a primitive version of this?

 

[Elhaym]

What a shitty looking product.

“has caused, and is continuing to cause, damage and irreparable injury to Gamevice.”

Don't blame your shitty toy not selling on another company.

 

[CWCchange]

Even considering all the Switch's flaws, this looks like the biggest piece of shit since the Tapwave Zodiac, except they didn't bitch over the PSP.

 

[Zarkov]

How much do you want to bet that Nintendo has its own sub-forum dedicated to frivolous legal notices ?