Recently, Nintendo lost a lawsuit to Tomita Technologies over the 3DS, more specifically, the 3D technology used on the 3DS. Tomita Technologies owns the patent on a specific technology for 3D viewing without the need for extra devices, which ended up being used on the 3DS. Once this was found out, Nintendo was found guilty of infringement and fined over $30 million.
The interesting thing is, while the idea and patent belong to Tomita Technologies, they did not use it. In the mean time, Nintendo used it, released a product and made a huge profit. In that regard, was Tomita Technologies actually “harmed” in anyway? Or were they merely fighting to say they had the idea first?
Article: Here
I think wether Nintendo stole the idea or they simply came up with it after is a huge factor. If Nintendo simply came up with the idea later and there was no such product on the market then it is not infringing copyright.
Tomita is just jealous. Nintendo achieved a lot of success over what they claim to be their product. They just want some of that money.