The enormous success of the Wii console prompted companies to sue Nintendo for patent infringement, knowing that a very hefty bill would wait for them in case they won.
However, one plaintiff already managed to lose the case. The patent infringement case filed by Fenner Investments Ltd against Nintendo was dismissed by U.S. District Court judge Leonard Davis.
"We are very pleased with the court's decision," said Rick Flamm, Nintendo of America's senior VP, Legal & General Counsel. "Nintendo has a long history of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others. We also vigorously defend patent lawsuits when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party's patent, despite the risks that this policy entails. I would like to express our sincere appreciation for the tireless efforts of our legal team, which represented us so well."
In the original filing, Fenner stated that the Wii and GameCube controllers infringed on patent number 6,297,751 which read the following:
“The joystick port interface includes an integrated circuit receiving an analog joystick position measurement signal and outputting a digital pulse signal to a processor which signifies a joystick coordinate value. The integrated circuit includes a pulse generator and a bidirectional buffer circuit. The bidirectional buffer circuit receives the analog joystick position measurement signal and selectively discharges an RC network capacitor which provides this analog measurement. This implementation provides a joystick port which uses low-voltage CMOS VLSI structures which can interface a conventional high-voltage joystick with the processor.”
Will this prove enough to discourage other patent trolls from suing Nintendo?
Add to Favorites
Set Home Page
