Nintendo sued for WiiMote design: A few thoughts ...

Posted December 14, 2006 at 02:46 AM by Darrick Rochili

Section: Tech News, Gaming, Console, Mice / Keyboards

Here we go again, another lawsuit coming against a big company, who just happens to have recently released a major product.  As we mentioned yesterday, a company called Interlink Electronics is suing Nintendo of America for “patent infringement.”  Apparently, this company holds a US patent for a “trigger operated electronic device” that Nintendo’s WiiMote is infringing upon.

First of all, I agree that based on the diagram of the patent, there are quite a few similarities with the WiiMote, and since the patent was filed in 1997, Interlink has the right to cry foul about this.

And yet, a few things bug me about this whole issue (not just this particular case):

The description of the device in the patent document sounds eerily like a wireless mouse, only shaped and acts like a remote, with sensing plates instead of lasers/optics/balls to move the cursor, and triggers for buttons. You can’t tell me that you haven’t seen presentation devices out there that do the same thing, and yet somehow those are free from lawsuits. Just call it what it is: a wireless, remote shaped mouse. (Just look at their company’s website, lots of their products are presentation devices, not like they’re building some super secret “trigger operated electronic device” :)). Doesn’t the US patent office verify that submissions such as these, which theoretically are just a variance of normal electronic equipment made to sound sophisticated (again, I read the description of the patent, and that’s what it sounded like to me, someone please correct me if I’m wrong), can be patented? Huge companies such as Nintendo and Sony (who lost that Immersion/rumble pack lawsuit) should have no problems hiring patent experts, who could sift through patent claims, to prevent such occurrences. Why don’t they do that before building anything big and facing these issues afterwards? If the device Interlink describes in their patent is really some sort of presentation remote, there really should’ve been many lawsuits before this, since it’s just a wireless presentation remote for goodness sakes. Sue Logitech, sue Microsoft, sue Gyration, sue every single presentation remote maker for that matter. Why does it have to be now, and why Nintendo at the launch of one of their biggest products in years? Doesn’t that make you suspicious of their motives? (*cough* cash grab *cough*)

I can’t really say what Interlink’s motivation is. Maybe they really feel that Nintendo infringed and stole their concept, but from my point of view, if they really felt that way, then some other product/company should’ve been on their radar a long time ago.

Read [GamesIndustry]