Judge halves 'intrinsically excessive' damages in 3DS tech lawsuit

Newsbrief: Retired Sony engineer Seijiro Tomita recently won a case against Nintendo, and was awarded $30.2 million in damages after a U.S. jury found that the company had infringed on his 3D display technology. Now a federal judge has decided to half those damages to $15.1 million, stating that the original amount was "intrinsically excessive and unsupported by the evidence presented at trial," according to Reuters. In particular, the judge noted that the Nintendo 3DS console is not profitable, and that most of the games designed for the console do not actually use Tomita's patent. Tomita can now choose to accept the $15.1 million, or push on for a new trial and risk losing it all. A spokesperson for Nintendo said that the company is looking to appeal both the original jury verdict, and this reduced damages award.