EFF Sues Nintendo for Patent Abuse

July 6, 2004

EFF Sues Nintendo for Patent Abuse
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a US non-profit organization, announced on June 30 ten companies’ abuse of patent rights, including Nintendo as a principal abuser. EFF has appealed to the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) for cancellation of Nintendo’s patent similar to the Game Boy patent.

EFF was established for protection of rights of individuals in the hi-tech sector, it opposes abuse of patent rights and repeals respective technology innovations and violation of the manifestation of freedom, seeking for respective responsibility. With respect to this, Nintendo was the first company to be attacked among ten patent violation cases.

Nintendo received patent right for Game Goy software emulation on different hardware. However, a Canadian entertainment company as of March 29 put on sale a simulator, which can run the GB game on different hardware terminals, after which Nintendo filed a patent infringement lawsuit.

For Nintendo, this is just to guarantee that its own software does not lead to increase in competitors’ sales of host computers. EFF, however, awarded Nintendo the label “public enemy” for obstruction of interchangeable technological innovation.

According to EFF, Nintendo appeared before they applied for the emulator patent, and the patent is therefore invalid. EFF provided relevant argumentation, and, holding the accumulated data, their attorneys and experts will appeal to PTO for another investigation.

From June 10 until June 23 EFF intermittently worked on such-like cases, with ten companies having already been censured.