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Court finds Koei-Tecmo partly guilty in patent-infringement case from Capcom

Garou

Garou

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,664
Anyone remember this story from 2014?

The lawsuit was originally filed by Capcom for many cases of patent-infringement by Koei-Tecmo, seeking damages as high as 980 Million Yen (~8.7 Million USD).
Today a court in Osaka found Koei guilty of patent-infringement in their Zero/Fatal Frame-series and ordered the payment of 5.17 Million Yen (~46,000 USD). The patent in question is for adjusting rumble according to the situation in the game.

Capcom originally filed for patent-infringement of two patents across 49 titles, including the Sengoku Basara-series.


EDIT: Since there is some confusion going on:
- Capcom filed the lawsuit against Koei.
- Koei was found guilty on a way smaller scale than Capcom wanted
- Koei puts out a press-release framing it as a "partial win"
- Famitsu picks it up without any sort of editing/journalism
- Western newssites pick it up and run it through Google-Translate
- confusion ensues
 
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Issen

Issen

Member
Nov 12, 2017
6,863
How are they event allowed to patent shit like adjusting rumble? What the hell man.
 
Lite_Agent

Lite_Agent

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,572
Somewhere. I think.
Hero of Legend said:
https:///koei-tecmo-wins-patent-infringement-lawsuit-capcom/

??? Who won what?
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Google Translate won.

Announcement concerning partial judgment judgment on patent infringement litigation

Kae Tecmo Games Co., Ltd. (President: Hisashi Koinuma, hereinafter "our company") won a case for a patent infringement lawsuit filed today filed by Capcom Inc. ("Capcom") , We will inform you as follows.
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Google Translation of this: https://www.famitsu.com/news/201712/14148139.html
 
Dreamboum

Dreamboum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
22,982
These patents needs to go. This one is as bad as Namco having a patent on mini-games during loading screens
 
Oliver James

Oliver James

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
7,979
Lawsuit filed today was won today by Koei-Tecmo? What? Also what's the situational rumble thing? What games featured it from Capcom? Haunting Ground, maybe?
 
OP
OP
Garou

Garou

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,664
Oliver James said:
Lawsuit filed today was won today by Koei-Tecmo? What? Also what's the situational rumble thing? What games featured it from Capcom? Haunting Ground, maybe?
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The lawsuit was filed by Capcom, Koei had nothing to win except a "not guilty", which they didn't get, although the guilty-verdict is way softer than what Capcom wanted. Why Famitsu frames this as "partially winning" is rather...odd. Their whole article is based on the Koei press-release. Shitty reporting all around.
 
Oliver James

Oliver James

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
7,979
Garou said:
The lawsuit was filed by Capcom, Koei had nothing to win except a "not guilty", which they didn't get, although the guilty-verdict is way softer than what Capcom wanted. Why Famitsu frames this as "partially winning" is rather...odd. Their whole article is based on the Koei press-release. Shitty reporting all around.
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Oh, I was basing it on the Google Translate thing. Maybe Capcom settled for less or let KT use it in exchange for something? Just guessing.
 

FormatCompatible

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,071
Cheap and quick translation of the Yomiuri Article:
In a lawsuit seeking damages of about 980 million yen against "KOEI TECMO GAMES" (Yokohama-shi), made by game software giant "Capcom" (Osaka-shi) saying it was infringed on its own patent, the Osaka District Court On 14th, acknowledged infringement on some of it's horror games, ordered Koei to pay 5.17 million yen.
According to the ruling, the infringement of the patent was confirmed on Koei's horror game "Zero" series work. It is claimed that there was infringement of the patent with the function to change the vibration of the controller according to the situation in the game. On the other hand, the claims against it's popular game "Samurai Warriors" were dismissed.
Capcom brought up 49 works by Koei and insisted that one of the two patents including vibration function was used.
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Hopefully someone will do a better one at some point.
 
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Lite_Agent

Lite_Agent

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,572
Somewhere. I think.
Garou said:
The lawsuit was filed by Capcom, Koei had nothing to win except a "not guilty", which they didn't get, although the guilty-verdict is way softer than what Capcom wanted. Why Famitsu frames this as "partially winning" is rather...odd. Their whole article is based on the Koei press-release. Shitty reporting all around.
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It's not "based" on the PR, it IS the PR, ha ha.

And it's pretty normal to talk about a "win" in court when the claimant didn't get what they wanted. In that case, the lawsuit applies to 39 games, but only one was found to violate Capcom's patents. I can see why KT spinned that as a win.
 
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Garou

Garou

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,664
Lite_Agent said:
It's not "based" on the PR, it IS the PR, ha ha.

And it's pretty normal to talk about a "win" in court when the claimant didn't get what they wanted. In that case, the lawsuit applies to 39 games, but only one was found to violate Capcom's patents. I can see why KT spinned that as a win.
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Sure, I get why Koei puts it this way, but why Famitsu just takes it verbatim without giving the article some framing is stupid. I mean the Yomiuri-Link is just a couple of sentences, but gives a very good picture of the whole affair.
 
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