Japanese developer COLOPL recently released a statement announcing that Nintendo‘s claims for damages have risen in the ongoing legal battle between the two companies, owing to the fees incurred over the three years since the lawsuit was first filed. The legal action is still ongoing, however, and COLOPL maintains that it did nothing wrong.
The saga began in 2016, when Nintendo began to file complaints against COLOPL with regards to perceived violations of five of their patents in the game White Cat Project (also known as Shironeko Project). This included one describing “the special technology used to operate a joystick over a touch panel” which had been filed for the Nintendo DS Wrist Strap for use in games like Super Mario 64 DS. When COLOPL pushed back, claiming that none of their games infringed on any of Nintendo’s patents, the gaming giant took to the courts, filing a lawsuit against the developer in January 2018.
Since then, the two companies have gone back and forth in hearing after hearing, with developments both expected and unexpected such as Nintendo adding a sixth patent infringement to its claims and COLOPL alleging that Nintendo’s patents were not valid at all. The original amount of damages, pegged at 39.33 million yen (just short of $350,000), has since ballooned to 4.95 billion yen (approximately $47 million) as of the latest developments in the case, and neither side looks willing to back down yet.
COLOPL has taken some action that could be seen as tantamount to an admission of wrongdoing, though. In 2019, the company quietly made some changes to the control scheme for White Cat Project at the center of one of the infringement claims, along with adjusting the appearance of character silhouettes that were also a point of contention. Whether this was a tacit confession of culpability, as Nintendo subsequently claimed, an attempt to prolong their legal lifespan on COLOPL’s part, or even just a planned, unrelated update to the gameplay is as yet unclear.
The filing of patents in the gaming industry, particularly for hardware, is not that unusual. Indeed, much of the time the ideas don’t even come to fruition, but are merely a way to cover the company’s bases if they have a cool idea for a console system or peripheral. In other cases, they can provide tantalizing glimpses into what may come in the future, such as the possibility of a new Nintendo Switch controller.
However, Nintendo’s approach to bringing the hammer down on perceived patent infringements may well give some consumers and companies pause. With the recent news that Warner Bros has patented the Shadow of Mordor Nemesis system, many fear that the threat of litigation will stifle innovation and iteration on established systems and mechanics in games. Whether this will happen with the Nintendo-COLOPL lawsuit remains to be seen. Suffice to say that the lawsuit, along with the billions of yen riding on it, is still ongoing, and COLOPL’s official position maintains that they are “confident that our game does not infringe upon Nintendo’s patent rights.”
White Cat Project is available in Japan on Android and iOS.
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