While Nintendo managed to dodge the Immersion “rumble” lawsuits of early 2002 (their Rumble Pak predated the patent), they’re not getting out of this one without a fight. Today, the AP reports that a Texas court has ordered Nintendo to pay $21 million for infringing upon the game controller patents of Anascape Ltd:
A federal jury found in favor of Anascape Ltd. in the lawsuit that was originally filed in 2006. Nintendo spokesman Charlie Scibetta said the company will seek an appeal and expects the court to reduce the award “significantly.”
The jury found that Nintendo infringed on Anascape’s patent while designing its Wii Classic, WaveBird and Gamecube controllers.
Scibettra said Nintendo was pleased no infringement was found with the motion-sensing technology used in its wandlike Wii and Nuncheck controllers, which mimic movements by users in games such as tennis and boxing.
Although the original lawsuit concerned at least 12 patents, court documents make it clear that the current case revolves around just one, U.S. Patent No. 6,906,700, filed in November 2000. The “700″ patent describes a 3D controller with vibration and pressure-sensitive (analog) controls.
While the patent easily describes Sony’s DualShock and Microsoft’s Xbox series of controllers as well, Microsoft has opted once again to settle things quietly out of court; and Sony was, rather conspicuously, never named in the lawsuit to begin with. Why? Yesterday, Nintendo argued in their own defense that the very owner of the “700″ patent, Brad Armstrong, admitted that the Sony DualShock — released November 1997 – probably predated the patent entirely.
Another amusing tidbit is found in Nintendo’s defense of their Wiimote-Nunchuk combo. When speaking of the Wii Classic, WaveBird and GameCube controllers, it’s certainly the odd man out — but after citing technical differences, Nintendo then goes on to argue semantics:
Nintendo is entitled to judgment as a matter of law of non-infringement of claim 19 for the independent reason that the Wii Remote and Wii Nunchuk connected together do not meet the Court’s construction of “controller.” A “controller,” as construed by the Court, is “a device held in the user’s hand . . .” The Wii Remote connected to the Wii Nunchuk constitute two devices, not one device. As a result, the features Anascape points to as satisfying the limitations of claim 19 are actually found on two distinct controllers rather than one.
Speaking with a representative of the court, GameCyte has learned that there has not yet been a final court decision regarding the case, and that further documentation on the jury ruling will be available later this afternoon. We’ll keep you posted.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 7:14 pm
[...] Nintendo’s motion-sensing Wiimote and Nunchuk may have gotten off on a technicality (or two), the Wii Classic Controller, WaveBird and original GameCube controller may not be as [...]
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