Nintendo To Pay Portion Of 3DS Sales To Another Company

Nintendo's highly successful hand-held hardware, the 3DS has taken yet another dent in profits with a recently settled lawsuit.

The case dates back to 2011, where the gaming company was found guilty after a jury found that Nintendo was using patented 3D stereoscopic technology that was developed by Tomita Technologies. The jury awarded $30.2 million dollars in damages to Tomita. The amount was later cut in half to $15 million due to certain factors such as technology and that the camera was not a core function for the hand-held system.

In December, the U.S. District Court met to determine if Nintendo would pay a royalty rate or a fixed fee which Tomita was pursuing. Judge Jed Rakoff ruled that Nintendo would pay a royalty rate of 1.82% and issued a statement with this reasoning:

"If, as Tomita suggests, the ongoing royalty rate were expressed as a flat dollar amount per unit sold, Tomita would capture an increasingly large proportion of each sale as the price falls, even as the technology's reliance on the infringed patent remains constant," Judge Rakoff wrote in his decision. "This would result in an unearned windfall for Tomita, and, accordingly, the court prefers an ongoing royalty rate expressed as a percentage of wholesale price."

Nintendo issued a statement to IGN that "the jury's verdict will not impact Nintendo's continued sales in the United States."

[Yahoo]