Back in 2011, former Sony employee Seijiro Tomita filed a lawsuit against Nintendo for infringement on a patent for using 3D technology. It seems that Nintendo didn't know of the patent at the time the critically acclaimed 3DS handheld was released. On March 13, it was announced that Nintendo had lost the lawsuit against Tomita and while this happened, Nintendo's stock dropped 2.70%.
As a result of the lawsuit, the jury has awarded $30.2 million in damages to Mr. Tomita. When IGN asked Nintendo about the final verdict, they stated that they are confident that the troubles from the lawsuit will eventually be forgotten and pushed aside. "Nintendo is confident that the result will be set aside." said Nintendo of America. "The jury's verdict will not impact Nintendo's continued sales in the United States of its highly acclaimed line of video game hardware, software and accessories, including the Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo has a long history of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others."
Nintendo's lawyer during the lawsuit was Scott Lindvall and it's believed that he did the best job he could at protecting Nintendo's line of handheld devices. Ultimately, he failed at doing so, and it's quite possible that Nintendo could be looking into finding a better lawyer in case anything like this happens again, but nothing has been confirmed. It's also unknown if the lawsuit itself caused Nintendo's stock price to drop 2.70%, but it's possible.
Mr. Tomita won't be receiving any share of each 3DS device sold or any games for the device, but $30.2 million in damages is more than enough to make up for the supposed infringement that Nintendo is guilty of. The 3DS handheld is one of the fastest selling handhelds of all time and with the upcoming Pikachu edition of the XL version of the handheld coming this month, sales are expected to ultimately increase even more. Nintendo's newest home console, Wii U, was released in November 2012 and as of right now, Nintendo isn't guilty of any infringement of the system besides the 3DS.
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