Nintendo with its ever innovative console features has been common targets of patent suits and patent infringement cases. Recently, Nintendo celebrates a court ruling made by Judge Jones on a suit filed by RecogniCorp a few years ago for allegedly violating a patent controlled by RecogniCorp.
RecogniCorp appealed that Nintendo Wii's usage of facial sketch data to create user personalized Mii characters was a violation of their Patent 8,005,303: method and apparatus for encoding/decoding image data.
Here is the primary claim made by RecogniCorp against Nintendo:
"A method for creating a composite image, comprising: displaying facial feature images on a first area of a first display via a first device associated with the first display, wherein the facial feature images are associated with facial feature element codes; selecting a facial feature image from the first area of the first display via a user interface associated with the first device, wherein the first device incorporates the selected facial feature image into a composite image on a second area of the first display, wherein the composite image is associated with a composite facial image code having at least a facial feature element code; and reproducing the composite image on a second display based on the composite facial image code."
After studying the case, Judge Jones, a Seattle federal court judge, ruled that the patent attempted to monopolize mathematical operations. This was invalid and cannot be done. "The Judge therefore did not need to rule directly on Nintendo's non-infringement arguments," in a paraphrased statement posted by GoNintendo.
Nintendo is very "pleased" with the court decision with Ajay Singh, Director of Litigation and Compliance for Nintendo America, saying, Finally put an end to RecogniCorp's attempt to cover inventions to which it has no rights."
The recent judge ruling will add to the three winning streak made by Nintendo in its battle against patent suits in 2015.
RecogniCorp remains silent after the court ruling.