No, the court in Japan, which is there to protect both of their interests, decided that Nikon was the wronged party, but not nearly as egregiously as Nikon had claimed!
Just because Sigma, who makes many great lenses, is smaller does make it alright to use and profit from another’s intellectual property without appropriate license.
If a country allows its manufacturers to copy batteries or software and sell it we call it piracy, and condemn the country for not properly enforcing copyright and patent law. Explain to me; how does being a small corporation suddenly makes it right to live by a different set of laws?
Yes, I realize that typical piracy involves using the same name for a product. This seems similar, just hiding the issue inside another product and branding it as your own innovation.
Started out doing photography at the age of 6 using an uncle's old 1940 kodak brownie box camera. At 15 years of age, I decided to buy my very own 1975 Praktica SLR camera. I now shoot with a Nikon D850. I do unpaid TFP and commercial paid work.