NEWS | Nintendo Wins Appeal against $10.1 million Verdict in Wii Remote Patent Case
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, January 22, 2020 - A federal court in Dallas ruled that a patent asserted against Nintendo’s Wii Remote was not valid.
In 2013, iLife Technologies Inc. filed a $144 million lawsuit against Nintendo over alleged infringement on a patent.
The issue stems from Nintendo controllers' use of accelerometers to track hand movement in relation to the environment, namely the motion-control technology used in the Wii and Wii U video game.
In 2017, a Texas jury found that both the Wii and Wii U systems infringed iLife's patent, a 1999 patent for a body-mounted fall-detection system, securing the company a $10.1 million judgement against Nintendo.
Following Nintendo's appeal against the decision, a Dallas federal court overturned that monetary award and invalidated iLife's patent altogether.
The court concluded that iLife Technologies Inc. was impermissibly trying to cover the broad concept of using motion sensors to detect motion.
The ruling nullifies a $10.1 million jury award against Nintendo from 2017.
The invalidated patent was the last of six patents that iLife Technologies Inc. originally asserted against Nintendo in 2013. The Patent Office found the other five invalid in 2016.
“Nintendo has a long history of developing new and unique products, and we are pleased that, after many years of litigation, the court agreed with Nintendo,” said Ajay Singh, Nintendo of America’s Deputy General Counsel.
“We will continue to vigorously defend our products against companies seeking to profit off of technology they did not invent.”
Geeks Republika
