One thing that sucks about patent lawsuits is their tendency to drag on forever. The Wii has been around for over 6 years now and Nintendo was still locked in a suit with Texas-based company Triton over the Wii MotionPlus technology released on 2009. If Nintendo had lost that suit, things would've gotten ugly for the company--Wii MotionPlus tech is used in all of the current Wii remote models and is used rather extensively by the new Wii U console. Nintendo managed to win a transfer of the suit to a Seattle court, and defeated it on their home turf, so to speak.
This press release comes from Nintendo so it's hard to tell if there really was any infringement or if Triton was looking for a quick payout. I'd definitely do some of my own digging and check out both sides of the suit before rooting for either side or drawing any conclusions, as these situations tend to be messy and complicated. In any case, you'll be able to buy fully-functional Wiimotes for the foreseeable future.
Seattle Federal Court Dismisses Wii Patent Lawsuit Filed against Nintendo
Triton Tech Suit Dismissed after Transfer
REDMOND, Wash.--(
BUSINESS WIRE)-- A patent-infringement lawsuit brought against Nintendo of America was dismissed by a federal judge in Seattle. Triton had alleged that Nintendo’s Wii MotionPlus accessory infringed one of Triton’s patents (U.S. Patent No. 5,181,181). Judge Richard A. Jones of the U.S. District Court dismissed the lawsuit following a ruling that rejected Triton’s legal arguments. Triton had initially filed suit in Texas, but Nintendo won a transfer to Seattle.
“We feel vindicated by the court’s ruling,” said Richard Medway, Nintendo of America’s deputy general counsel. “Nintendo’s track record demonstrates that we vigorously defend patent lawsuits, like the Triton lawsuit, when we believe that we have not infringed another party’s patent. Consumers respect Nintendo because we develop unique and innovative products, and because we respect the intellectual property rights of others.”
About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii U
™ and Wii
™ home consoles, and Nintendo 3DS
™ and Nintendo DS
™ families of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System
™, Nintendo has sold more than 4.1 billion video games and more than 654 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL, as well as the Game Boy
™, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi
™ and Nintendo DSi XL
™, Super NES
™, Nintendo 64
™, Nintendo GameCube
™ and Wii systems. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario
™, Donkey Kong
™, Metroid
™, Zelda
™ and Pokémon
™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, please visit the company’s website at
http://www.nintendo.com.
