Electronics manufacturer Philips has filed a lawsuit against Nintendo in the United States, alleging that the company copied two of its patents. Philips is seeking to ban the Wii U from being sold in the United States until the lawsuit is resolved.
The first patent involves mirroring real life movements in a game, with the second patent involving input featuring a pointing device like the Wii remote. These patents seem like broad definitions, since both Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s PlayStation Move devices could be cast under this umbrella as well. Either Microsoft and Sony licensed patent tech from Philips, or Philips is picking in Nintendo specifically.
Here’s what the lawsuit claims:
The present patents-in-suit stem from these fields of research and development and claims protection for an interactive system for which a user can remotely control devices in an intuitive manner. Such intuitive remote control mechanisms are used in present-day home video game consoles.
According to the suit, Philips contacted Nintendo about the infringing patents as far back as 2011, but no resolution was reached, so the company has launched the lawsuit. Aside from blocking sale of the Wii U and other infringing Nintendo hardware, Philips is suing for damages and wants a trial by jury for the lawsuit.
This isn’t the first time Nintendo has found itself in hot water over various patents and it likely won’t be the last.
