Company sues Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo over joystick patent

Texas-based Fenner Investments shooting for the top with its latest lawsuit, suing Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo for patent infringement. According to Fenner, who also happens to have sued Juniper Networks, Nokia, Cisco, Alcatel, and Ericsson for other alleged patent offenses early last year, the big three console makers are violating its patent for a "low-voltage joystick port interface," which it filed for in July, 1998 and was issued in October, 2001. The patent in question is describes a joystick port interface that includes "an integrated circuit receiving an analog joystick position measurement signal and outputting a digital pulse signal to a processor which signifies a joystick coordinate value," which would seem to cover just about any joystick with an analog stick. For their parts, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo appear to be staying mum on the subject, although we suspect this is one lawsuit they won't be losing too much sleep over.

[Via Slashdot]

[Diddle @ Jan 10th 2007 5:33PM]

It sounds like a fairly generic patent - how is it that the patent office is allowing these things to be registered?

"I'd like to patent a vertical barrier which is hinged on one side allowing passage between two divided spaces. A secure closing mechanism would allow for said vertical barrier to remain closed and/or secured closed. I would like to call this vertical barrier a 'door'." :rolleyes:

[hedley @ Jan 11th 2007 1:11PM]

The controller pads for xbox and xbox 360 contain analog components which are digitized. These are not limited to only the joysticksks, but other signals as well.

[myscrnnm @ Jan 10th 2007 5:35PM]

As far as I know, Sony and Nintendo don't even make joystick products. Although Microsoft did make joysticks for like Flight Simulator.

[Mikey @ Jan 10th 2007 5:45PM]

who makes the dualshocks' and thge six-axis' if sony doesn't?

[Donald Fisher @ Jan 10th 2007 5:36PM]

Although surely if the other folk had marketed items which did this before the patent was applied, then the precident of the device had already been set and that they weren't copying the patent holder.


I hate patent issues like this . . . money grabbing to the effect of stiffling progress.

[riggs @ Jan 10th 2007 5:38PM]

low-voltage? these controllers eat through batteries like snack cakes.

[myscrnnm @ Jan 10th 2007 5:49PM]

"who makes the dualshocks' and thge six-axis' if sony doesn't?"

That has nothing to do with this. The DualShocka and SIXAXIS are gamepads that use analog stick, pressure-sensitive button, directional pad, and trigger interfaces.

[Andy @ Jan 10th 2007 5:52PM]

companies that pull this patent lawsuit crap for frivolous shit just to make a quick buck should be immediately shut down.

it's just a waste of everyone's time and when they do win, the consumer ends up getting screwed as the costs get passed on to them in some way, shape or form.

this suit is especially silly if you think about the fact that these companies were making these "joysticks" before 1998.

[Cosmos @ Jan 10th 2007 6:07PM]

I wonder if the whole lawsuit could be dismissed because joysticks and analog sticks are two completely different things.

[Leo @ Jan 10th 2007 6:47PM]

My old Tandy COCO had an analog joystick back in the 80's.

These kind of patents are junk.

[Peter J @ Jan 10th 2007 7:30PM]

Analog sticks on game controllers are small versions of joysticks, just with no buttons and you only use a thumb to move it rather than your whole hand.

I guess companies do this to try and get free publicity from sites such as this.

[Nathan M @ Jan 10th 2007 7:51PM]

I wonder if these things would stop if the government forced companies to show that they actually intend to use/are using a patent before it gains full recognition, so that if you don't do anything with it but sue then it's worthless. Dunno if that would work since I'm not that knowledgeable on the legality of these things. Oh well, more stupid patent suits in the meantime.

[Saffy @ Jan 10th 2007 8:02PM]

Um...that first sentence is in serious need of a verb.

[Jeff @ Jan 10th 2007 8:15PM]

"My old Tandy COCO had an analog joystick back in the 80's. "

Probably not actually analog, in that it probably didn't register degree of movement, just movement. I don't recall the CoCo having a truly analog joystick available for it.

The Atari 5200, however, did - (in)famously. Prior art wouldn't be very difficult to demonstrate in this case.

[mitch @ Jan 10th 2007 8:34PM]

That's just bull.

[John @ Jan 10th 2007 8:40PM]

Wow, amazing, no anti-Texas remarks yet. Who woulda thunkit?

(And by the way, I'm from and currently live in Texas.)

[A @ Jan 10th 2007 9:15PM]

My 1980s atari has a joystick.....

[Scabies @ Jan 10th 2007 10:54PM]

dude, I played spiderbot with a joystick on my Tandy backintheday. Does the air force know that most of their aircraft focus around a patent infringement?

And what has this no-namer done with their intellectual property, aside from gouging people that encroach on their "original ideas"?

[JP @ Jan 11th 2007 12:58AM]

"The patent in question is describes a joystick port interface that includes 'an integrated circuit receiving an analog joystick position measurement signal and outputting a digital pulse signal to a processor which signifies a joystick coordinate value,'"

That is great, too bad none of Nintendo's "analog" sticks are actually analog (ok, I have seen one, but it was a 3rd party N64 arcade pad). The input is a digital representation of an analog location that is sent to a controller that references from an arbitrary center point. Think stick glued to mouse ball. I think the others are similar. but i have not been able to dismantle the mechanics of a DuleShock, at least not without risk of damage.

[OiD @ Jan 11th 2007 8:53AM]

If the company wins... wow thats a lot of joystick xD

[Sam @ Jan 11th 2007 9:59AM]

According to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64 the N64 came out (with analog controllers) in 1996. So if the patent is about analog controllers then they will lose.

[some person @ Jan 11th 2007 1:12PM]

filed in '98? weren't systems made with such technology before?

[glacia @ Jan 11th 2007 2:38PM]

"low-voltage? these controllers eat through batteries like snack cakes."

The voltage has nothing to do with how quickly it drains a battery. The rate at which something drains a battery is based on the current it draws. A 1.5 Volt battery can be drained in seconds or months depending on the current draw and yet it's still always 1.5 Volts, low voltage.

[Jonk @ Jan 11th 2007 3:12PM]

If these guys win, watch the number of frivolous patents go through the roof.

[macona @ Jan 11th 2007 4:14PM]

The N64 analog stick used encoders on both axis'. This is an output of two square wave signals 90 degrees out of phase. Known as a quadrature encoder. So there was never a analog signal to convert to digital and send out a raw data stream to the CPU. Plus the patent goes in depth on how it converts the analog signal to digital and is very specific about the design of the circut. None of the companies that used potentiometer style analog sticks (EG Sony) used anthing close to this. This patent is basically for a cheap analog to digital converter which have been around forever and the computer actually has to send signal to the joystick to find its position.

Another point is at least Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft all encode this signal with all other button presses. There is no one signal revealing position. Just a datastream that must be decoded.

[Eric @ Jun 18th 2007 7:42PM]

More and more it seems like these patent trolls don't even know what their own inventions are for. Maybe THAT should be the gold standard...