The Japanese developers Nintendo and Colopl have been involved in a three-year-long lawsuit for the “White Cat Project” or “Shironeko Project” Patent rights infringement. Today, both parties have come to a mutual settlement with Colopl withdrawing from the proceedings, granting a future license for Nintendo. The settlement also involves Colopl paying a huge amount of $30 million dollars as compensation to Nintendo for the law proceedings and infringement fine. Nintendo has also issued an official statement on the same.
Patent infringement by Colopl in White Cat Project
Back in 2018, Nintendo had filed a lawsuit for court proceedings against Colopl for patent infringement in the “White Cat Project”. Nintendo had claimed that Colopl has implemented a virtual pad called “Punicon” in its White Cat Project game. This virtual pad allows players to perform certain actions by tapping on it and helps in enhancing the gameplay.
The single tap allowed players to perform a normal attack while double-tapping helped in executing combo moves. Pressing & holding followed by swiping in a particular direction would execute some action moves. This entire working of the virtual pad was claimed by Nintendo as its original patent idea and filed a lawsuit against Colopl.
The final court settlements
As mentioned before, after three years in the court both parties have now settled for a diplomatic deal. The decision was eventually made by Colopl as they felt that the court proceedings were dragging on and the claims of damage by Nintendo nearly reached $90 million.
The decision was taken by the Colopl Authorities in consideration of their future projects and the current state of the “White Cat Project”. The company is expected to face a $30 million deficit in the third quarter of the fiscal year ending September 2021.
Upcoming projects of Colopl
Colopl recently announced the development of a new game called COLOPL Golf. Apart from it, the studio is also currently working on various other live-playing games like Ugene and many more.
What are your thoughts on the lawsuit of patent infringement between Nintendo and Colopl? Let us know in the comment section below!
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