Normally when we see somebody filing a lawsuit with interface-related patents in question, we're talking about
some vague thing filed a couple months after that product went into production and with little relation to the real-life technology under fire. No such luck for Nintendo this time around: Patrick Goschy, an ex-Midway employee, has a YouTube video of himself demonstrating something astoundingly similar to a Wiimote / Nunchuck... eight years ago. His demo shows his hacked-together controllers providing a surprisingly-responsive interface for a bit of Ready 2 Rumble Boxing on the Dreamcast. Goschy, who appeared on Fox News in Chicago last night, says that he has had no formal involvement with the Wii, but holds the related patents
and is taking Nintendo to court over its implementation. Rumor has it that Nintendo might have to sacrifice as much as 47 seconds of retail profits were the company to lose in court. Video is after the break, brace yourself for a complete lack of pants.
[Thanks, Boyo]
Update: Patrick's wife Sheri contacted us to set the story straight and says that Patrick isn't suing Nintendo (yet). She also gave us the link to
the news story, which provides some further info and a Nintendo statement which denies any Goschy involvement in the Wii's technology.
posted January 14th 2008 12:10PM
The shorts he's wearing is proof that this was done 8 years ago.
The Japanese have always copied stuff. You know the old saying, great artists steal. And MS STOLE the Mac OS desktop. (I know, I know...other desktops were before that, too)
yes and the Apple Desktop was stolen directly from the Xerox Parc. The Apple Lisa was an almost exact copy of the Xerox Star except that it was slightly less advanced. Xerox even sued Apple in the late 80's but the courts determined that Xerox waited around to long and the suit was thrown out for being too late. Apple is hardly an innovative company either.
Either way this isn't an article about MS or Apple this about Nintendo. I highly doubt taht Nintendo stole this patent but it is possible they violated his patent. Most likely this case will be settled if there si any veracity to his claims and if the patent holder is reasonable.
congratuliations, you just made a total fool of yourself by bringing apple up even though this has nothing to do with it....dumbass
480 isn't bad, but for a next gen system, it should have at least 720, if not 1080.
It has happened that technology has been developed independently in different parts of the world. Prior art limits individual or companies from taking out patents on the technology developed.
I don't think so, John. As I stated in my post I AM WELL AWARE of the naysayers' arguments about PARC. (And I can spell AND type congratulations, too. Sorry you must have made a complete fool of yourself for not buying a computer with spell check. ZING!)
;)
No, sorry FThorn,
You still look kind of foolish. I think that in your fervor, you missed the whole "this article has nothing to do with Apple and MS" part.
dude just got freaking lucky
okay, if i were on the jury, i'd find against him simply because the act of his lawsuit would have forced me to watch a video of a comic-book-lookin guy without pants.
god bless the american judicial system!
The real problem is going to come when he figures out that he sold his invention to Midway for 1 dollar. Everyone at that time had to sign over thier rights tothier ideas. This is most importantly because this was developed while on company time. I think tha Sumner Redstone is going to be the one to profit from this, NOT PAT.
Oh no, not 47 seconds of retail profits? ;)
@john
I was replying to the person above me in retrospect your reply was better.
He described his method to the axis, so shouldn't he be going after Sony's Six-axis controlling, and buttons being activated based on the motion. Nintendo uses infrared and doesn't describe their mechanism to axis'.
Dude taped this on 6-28-00. As in 7.5ish years ago of prior art. I hope he - not Midway - gets a little something for his patented work.
No pants = creativity.
I'm going to try and sell my boss on that one.
here is the video guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCyJZpKtdzk&eurl=http://gonintendo.com/?p=33275
Boxing in boxers.
Here's an idea: The patent and trademark office is supposed to cross reference all patents to make sure they do not infringe on any others. That is kind-of their whole purpose. Why not leave them responsible up front and quit all of these frivolous law suits? If they did their job there would be nothing to fight about, products would simply have to comply before they were ever built. There is no way someone outside that office could possibly do a better/more efficient patent search to check for their own compliance (i.e. some bonehead who hacked his 80’s console). These patent law suits piss me off.
Maybe these lawsuits frustrate you because you do not understand what's going on.
If Nintendo had tried to patent the technology in the controller, then the USPTO would do a search for prior art and would hopefully uncover this patent and use it reject Nintendo's patent application. It is not the USPTO's job to look for infringement in everything made/used/sold/imported into the US.
It is every company's responsibility to make sure they are not infringing on another person's patent. Why? Because they understand their own technology better than anyone else and therefore are in the best position to determine if they are infringing or not and seek licenses if necessary.
And there is a way, because companies do this all the time.
So Nintendo has no patents on the Wii's controllers? I just assumed that they would patent the one piece of technology that was unique to their system. I mean, if they are knowingly/willfully infringing on patents then screw 'em, but it seems there are too many of these types of law suits going around. Something isn't right.
Maybe not today, maybe not tommorrow, but some day Nintendo is going to have to pay somebody off.
"Hello Nintendo? You're fuX0red!"
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=5478742&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1
Again The Fox "news" interview out of Chicago.
Is he wearing underwear?
Serious, I don't want to see fat guys in a t-shirt and underwear playing videos games.
Avoid looking in any mirrors then ;)
Actually - there was a compnay in 1997/1998 that developed this technology. It was called reality fusion and they made games that were controlled by a camera. They did a bundling deal with intel and logitech who added their software to cameras they sold. Sadly the company is no longer working on this. I was one of the forst 3 people to work there back in the late 90's
So there is your prior art.
"Games controlled by a camera", did you see a camera in the video?
It's a different technology.
Mr. Goschy has 2 patents filed in his name:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=IrsHAAAAEBAJ&dq=ininventor:Patrick+ininventor:Goschy&as_drrb_ap=q&as_minm_ap=1&as_miny_ap=2008&as_maxm_ap=1&as_maxy_ap=2008&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2008&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=2008
http://www.google.com/patents?id=w4EOAAAAEBAJ&dq=ininventor:Patrick+ininventor:Goschy&as_drrb_ap=q&as_minm_ap=1&as_miny_ap=2008&as_maxm_ap=1&as_maxy_ap=2008&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2008&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=2008
Both patents belong to "Midway Amusment Games, LLC", so chances are Mr. Gochy does not even have standing to sue.
Further, the patent describing the controllers shown in the video, claims a light sensor on the controller which would receive and interpret pixels on the "video display" (claim 1). Nintendo's wiimote may fall outside of this claim as it uses IR sensors to interpret the signals from the sensor bar, and not pixels from the video display.
huh? I think that the patent that relates to what's in the video is the second one that you give and that one has pretty direct implications regarding the "motion sensing using accelerometers" functionality of the Wii controller. Good spot on the patent ownership, tho.
There's no chance he'll get anything - not only did he develop this on Midway time - but he signed paperwork so he can't even touch Midway; who technically owns the invention and patents. Sure maybe it seems shitty, but it's worked that way for a long time now.
Tip: if you're eventing something look into properly protecting it and don't let your boss handle it all for you.
He let this one slip through his fingers a long time a go, sucks.
And also; this doesn't exactly work like the wii does; it's like comparing a bicycle to a motorcycle; topical similarities but fundamentally different.
Someone stole his pants! Urm.. I mean, patent.
OOOOkkkkkk, and this couldn't be fake, WHY??????????!?!?!?!?!?!?
He states that he wants credit for his invention. OK give him credit for what he did. Great job Pat!!!Now get on with life! He isn't going to see a freekin nickle. Niel Nicastro had him locked up then and he still is locked up leagaly. He has NO rights to anything that he did while in the employment of Midway Games. He signed away his rights. Shame on him, shame on all of us back then. Stop sniveling and get over yourself. I guess nothing has changed has it?
I hope he gets paid.
Better yet I hope Sony or Microsoft buys the patents and goes up against Nintendo themselves.
Anyone realize in the fox vid the put the wii disc in backwards? Bout 3/4 way through
I like the comments made in previous posts about invention being worthy of a patent but evolution not being...I see both a motion sensing controller in combination with an accelerometer as evolution to a remote control (wired or otherwise) since this is logical progression.
I'm gonna sue Nintendo because I once used my fists in a fight. I don't have it on video but if I track down that junior school fiend we could share the profits.
So let me get this right.... Steven Seagal invented the wiimote?