Illinois man sues Nintendo for copying his idea
Says he came up with the DS first
It feels like there's always one nutcase or another suing gaming giants for stealing their ideas or infringing on their patents.
But a recent complaint filed in America by Illinois resident John Martin really takes the jammy dodger. Martin claims Nintendo has infringed on a patent he filed for an electronic game system, described as:
"An electronic game device system [which] is switchable between an amusement mode and a gaming or gambling mode and is useful for vehicles such as aeroplanes or boats which move geographically from jurisdictions where gambling is legal to jurisdictions where it is not...
"An improved method of operating a touch screen on a CRT or ICD computer screen uses finger release as input registering...
"Mounting arrangements for mounting computer screens or monitors are also disclosed..."
I'm not sure about you, but that's not exactly how I'd describe the DS. Even if he'd patented a dual screen, shiny white, touch-screen handheld console that runs games depicting large monkeys and Italian plumbers, though, he's still right out of luck, because his patent was filed in August 2005, while DS was actually released in 2004.
Good luck with that, John.
Wisely, he has a back-up plan. Which is to serve Apple with a similar lawsuit. Brilliant. We'll keep you posted on how he gets on - as much because if he wins a few million based on that sketchy patent there's hope for us all to do the same thing.
