Nintendo is no stranger to the court room thanks to its addition of motion controls for the Wii and the Wii U. This time a federal court in Seattle was the battleground. UltimatePointer LLC initiated a patent infringement suit against Nintendo for the original Wii, asserting that the Japanese company has infringed upon two of its patents. A federal judge in Seattle determined that UltimatePointer’s claims to the patent infringement were invalid and because of that, the case will not proceed to trial.
Of course Nintendo is happy about the decision, as it should be in the case of these patent trolls.
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. 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.
This likely won’t be the last time Nintendo will have to defend itself in court against patent trolls, but as more cases are won against those who frivolously file lawsuits, it builds a stronger case for Nintendo to demonstrate how it doesn’t infringe on any of the vague patents claimed by these fly by night companies.
