The question at hand was never if the 3DS allowed for glasses-free stereoscopic images, but rather how it joined the two perspectives of a 3D image to create the illusion of depth. The court used two tests to sort this out -- one that tested to see if the function itself was similar, and a second to determine if the differences between the methods were substantial. "Under both tests," the court wrote in the ruling, "the district court found that the 3DS and the disputed limitation do not possess equivalent structures."

In other words, the 3DS still offsets two images to create a 3D illusion, but not in a substantially similar way as Tomita's old patent. It's a big win for Nintendo, who would have had to pay $15.1 million in damages if its past victory had not been upheld.