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Nintendo wins 50 percent reduction of $30M 3D infringement award

Nintendo only has to pay half of the $30.2 million a US District Court determined it owed to Seijiro Tomita for infringing on his 3D display patent. As both Bloomberg and Reuters reports, Judge Jed Rakoff gave Tomita and his company Tomita Technologies the option to accept $15.1 million in damages, or risk nothing by entering another trial.

Back in March, the US District Court in Manhattan judged Nintendo guilty of infringing upon Tomita's 3D-display tech patent, filed in 2003 and granted in 2008. Tomita's attorney, Joe Diamante, claimed Nintendo used his client's technology to develop the 3DS. However, yesterday Judge Rakoff said the award was "intrinsically excessive" and "unsupported by the evidence presented at trial."

The reduction in penalties is massive, but Nintendo plans on appealing the verdict, just the same. Spokesperson Charlie Scibetta told Reuters, "Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of other companies and is confident that none of its products infringes the asserted patent. Nintendo will appeal the jury's verdict and reduced damages award to the court of appeals."

As for Tomita, his attorney informed Reuters, "We are still reviewing the decision and have no comment." We doubt we've heard the last of this case yet.