http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/14/us-nintendo-patent-infringement-idUSBRE97D1BI20130814?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

Judge halves $30.2 million infringement award against Nintendo

The federal jury in New York awarded Tomita the damages in March after deciding the video game company infringed a 3-D display technology patent with its handheld 3DS videogame system.

Tomita's patent related to technology he developed for providing 3-D images without the need for 3-D glasses. He sued Nintendo and its U.S. unit in 2011 for patent infringement.

In a ruling on Wednesday, federal judge Jed Rakoff deemed the award "'intrinsically excessive' and unsupported by the evidence presented at trial."

By August 23, Tomita, 59, must decide whether to accept $15.1 million in damages or proceed to a new damages trial, the U.S. district judge ruled.

Rakoff noted that evidence at the trial showed Nintendo's 3DS console is not profitable, and the vast majority of games designed for it do not use technology covered by Tomita's patent.

The judge denied other requests from Nintendo, including overturning the jury's verdict or granting a new liability trial.

"Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of other companies and is confident that none of its products infringes the asserted patent," Charlie Scibetta, a spokesman for Nintendo, said in a statement. "Nintendo will appeal the jury's verdict and reduced damages award to the court of appeals."

Joe Diamante, Tomita's lawyer, said that "We are still reviewing the decision and have no comment."

The case is Tomita Technologies USA, LLC et al v. Nintendo Co, Ltd et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 11-cv-4256.

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They must make next to nothing off the handhelds and all the money off the games sold.

Well, that's nice of them I guess.

I hope for nintendo's sake they convinced the judge by adding up all the R&D for the 3DS and then provided arguments that they haven't recovered the investment money yet so the 3DS isn't profitable.. otherwise its pretty sad that the 3DS isn't profitable if it were just selling price minus cost price ..

The 3DS is profitable now, its been so since Q3 2012.

I can't tell whether this is good or awful news for Nintendo

I'm thinking the same thing.

Nintendo sells a massive amount of software. Even if 3DS hardware is just breaking even they're surely making a large profit on software.

People come on. The 3ds hardware probably makes Nintendo lose some money but its INSANELY offseted by the software sales. I mean seriously. The games sold for the 3ds lead to such great revenue that it totally offseted (with the help of a strong yen) the abysmal Wii U hardware and game sales (and they sell Wii U at a loss too, making the 3ds even more successful if there is that much profit).

They are including R&D and other factors, (Logistic, advertising, promotions, etc) since they all go into whether or not an item is profitable. Yes the 3DS is currently making money back for everything it lost, but it lost a lot of money because of the price cut/ rushed R&D in the previous 2+ years.

I did my part in helping it out when it had hardly any games. I bought a 3ds when they were $250 and to be honest I'm glad I did. I have played a lot of those 20 free ambassador games a lot, most of which I've never really played before. And I love the games I have for my 3ds now and there are so many more out there I haven't gotten yet that I really want.