Wii Sue? Again?
DualShock, The Watchmen, Nyko's wireless nunchuck - does the legal machine hold nothing sacred?
The lawyers have come a-calling again, this time clamoring that Nintendo's Wii remote has infringed upon the patents of US-based Hillcrest Laboratories.
Hillcrest alleges that no fewer than four patents "dealing with technology for a handheld three-dimensional pointing device" as well as a display system have been infringed upon:
"While Hillcrest Labs has a great deal of respect for Nintendo and the Wii, Hillcrest Labs believes that Nintendo is in clear violation of its patents and has taken this action to protect its intellectual property rights,"
Nintendo and its 29.6 million Wii console sales had yet to receive the lawsuit and, of course, had no comment - but given that Nintendo's been on the receiving end of Wiimote lawsuits since 2006, one imagines they are prepared.
Nintendo faces legal action over Wii console [CNN]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 21 August 2008
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: legal suit, nintendo, wii
Name: Dave
If they were that concerned, they'd have filed lawsuits long before now.
Still it is nice to see lawsuit happy companies get theirs, and all 3 major parties like to throw them around.
When people hit it big, everyone wants a piece of the proverbial pie. They'll take anything they have that shows that Nintendo (or any other company with any other successful product) ripped off their idea. And for all we know they may have. (Albeit not intentionally.)
Having read the comments over on Kotaku, many people realize that the fault here lies with neither Nintendo nor Hillcrest, but with the archaic and ineffective patent laws in the US.
Either way, as long as the Wii isn't suspended (and imports aren't illegal), then I don't see this having much affect on Nintendo's success. They still have the DS, after all.
P.S. The Gamecube still rocks, anyway.
/fanboy
@ Neo: Actually, they could have spent that time researching whether or not they have an actual basis for a lawsuit. It's not likely (in my "expert" opinion), but it is possible.
Yeah, my post was in-depth and an ardent testament to what I feel are the social issues related to these patents and their wider implications for the gay community.
But thanks for telling me what I already knew.
If Nintendo infringed and Hillcrest can prove it, then they deserve to be sued.
What I don't understand is why every time anybody sues anybody else, people on the internet (including on this site) who don't have all the details on the suit, and who usually have little or no legal education, have an immediate knee-jerk reaction that the suit is unnecessary or frivolous. If it was their patent, or their money I'm sure they'd feel differently, but it's not so it's easy for them to sit there and complain about how lawsuit-happy Americans are and such. It's just gotten really old, and really tired - for me, anyway.
keith, i understand what you are saying about online complainers about these lawsuits, but the issue for me is that even if all these companies with said patents are getting infringed upon, many have not nor have any intention of actually implementing such patents into useful products.
in my opinion these companies are holding back progress. there are millions of patents out there that we will never see implemented because the people that can actually do it don't hold the patents and are trying to come around to an alternative instead.
if anything the US patent office should be sued by all citizens. they are hurting our economy and technology by givings rights to people with many ideas but no means and in many cases no know how to develop these ideas.
imagine if the guy that invented the cure for chicken pox got a patent and just sat on it.