Nintendo Wins More Wii Patent Disputes

For a company like Nintendo, that always is bringing new hardware ideas to the gaming market, new and unusual configurations that often meet wild success, it is a given that there will be people who will always try to claim ‘but we did it first.’ Unfortunately for Nintendo, this often involves people who claim that they patented whatever big new idea Nintendo is bringing to the market before Nintendo developed it, and that the new product is violating their patents. They then demand damages, and the process is usually long and drawn out in courts.

Nintendo has just won another couple of such patent disputes- on December 19, a United States federal appeals court upheld Nintendo’s victory in a patent infringement case brought to the International Trade Commission by Creative Kingdoms, essentially echoing the sentiment that the Creative Kingdom’s patents are invalid and should never have been issued.

“We are pleased with the court’s determination,” Nintendo deputy general counsel said Richard Medway said. “Nintendo’s track record demonstrates that we vigorously defend patent lawsuits, particularly when the patents are being stretched beyond the inventors’ ideas. Nintendo continues to develop unique and innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others.”

But in another win for Nintendo, on December 22, a US federal court ruled that Nintendo’s Wii did not violate two UltimatePointer patents. There was no trial, because a number of the claims made by UltimatePointer were simply inaccurate.

“We are very pleased with these decisions, which confirmed Nintendo’s position from the beginning–we do not, nor have we ever, infringed these patents,” Medway said. “The result in this case, once again, demonstrates that Nintendo will continue to vigorously defend its innovations against patent lawsuits, even if it must do so in multiple courts and commit significant resources to defend itself. Nintendo continues to support reform efforts to reduce the unnecessary and inefficient burden patent cases like this one place on technology companies in the United States.”

I guess Nintendo is just glad that the Wii U isn’t successful at this point- the silver lining is, it’s so irrelevant, no one will care to fight a patent case over it in court.