$30.2 M infringement award against Nintendo halved

In a ruling on Wednesday, U.S. federal judge Jed Rakoff decided that inventor Seijiro Tomita can either take half of the $30.2 million in damages awarded to him after Nintendo Co was found infringing upon his display technology patent or walk away with nothing, Reuters reports.

Rakoff said the payout was "'intrinsically excessive' and unsupported by the evidence presented at trial." According to Reuters, Rakoff said trial evidence showed that the 3DS is not profitable and a majority of titles for the handheld do not make use of the tech featured in Tomita's patent. Tomita has until Aug. 23. to choose to either proceed to a new damages trial or walk away with $15.1 million in damages.

The former Sony employee holds a patent on a display technology used in the tech that powers the glasses-free stereoscopic in Nintendo's 3DS handheld. Tomita sued Nintendo in 2011 for patent infringement and the case went to trial on Feb. 25. In March, a federal jury in New York ruled that Nintendo infringed upon the patent, meaning a possible payout of $30.2 million in compensatory damages.

In a recent statement obtained by Reuters, Nintendo spokesman Charlie Scibetta said the company is confident that none of its products infringes on Tomita's patent and it "will appeal the jury's verdict and reduced damages award to the court of appeals."