Nintendo Wins Another Wii Patent Dispute

[Andy Chalk]

Nintendo Wins Another Wii Patent Dispute

The International Trade Commission has ruled that the Nintendo Wii does not violate "magic wand" patents held by theme park operator Creative Kingdoms.

The U.S. International Trade Commission has rejected a claim by Creative Kingdoms [http://www.creativekingdoms.com/] that the motion-sensing technology at the center of Nintendo's Wii controller violated patents on technology used in its "magic wand" controllers. Those devices allow children to "cast spells" and take part in other activities at Creative Kingdoms' "themed adventure parks."

Creative Kingdoms originally filed the complaint in March 2011, asking the ITC to slap an import ban on the Wii. Nintendo countered by saying that any import ban should be limited to the Airplane game in Wii Sports Resort, as it was the only game presented in the complaint, and also that the Wii U shouldn't be included because it wasn't on the market until after the trial had concluded and thus hadn't been properly considered by the judge.

Judge Charles Bullock had previously ruled in favor of Nintendo but was asked to review the matter further; the review, however, reached the same conclusion as the original ruling. The ruling in full is available from the U.S. International Trade Commission website [http://www.usitc.gov/secretary/fed_reg_notices/337/337_770_notice09122013sgl.pdf].

Source: Bloomberg [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-12/nintendo-wins-patent-case-seeking-to-block-wii-imports.html]


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[Dragonbums]

Clearly they just wanted publicity.

I mean, who the hell are Creative Kingdoms?

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

Nintendo countered by saying that any import ban should be limited to the Airplane game in Wii Sports Resort, as it was the only game presented in the complaint

Wait, what? I'm not even sure how that works. Unless the idiots thought that it was the one game that used the 'wand' controls as opposed to THE ENTIRE BLOODY CONSOLE, sounds like a pretty bizarre method of damage control on Nintendo's.

Then again, I'm certainly not upset that Nintendo won, so good for them I suppose. Anyway, didn't the tech for the Wii exist for quite a few years before the Wii was developed, i.e. motion controls and light gun tech in general? I'm pretty sure I've seen people use it freely before the Wii came out (at the very least we had Duck Hunter), but feel free to stop me if I'm spouting nonsense.

 

[seditary]

Nintendo countered by saying that any import ban should be limited to the Airplane game in Wii Sports Resort, as it was the only game presented in the complaint

Wait, what? I'm not even sure how that works. Unless the idiots thought that it was the one game that used the 'wand' controls as opposed to THE ENTIRE BLOODY CONSOLE, sounds like a pretty bizarre method of damage control on Nintendo's.

That's not really damage control by Nintendo. That's their lawyers saying 'Come at us ************, your shit is wack.'

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

Nintendo countered by saying that any import ban should be limited to the Airplane game in Wii Sports Resort, as it was the only game presented in the complaint

Wait, what? I'm not even sure how that works. Unless the idiots thought that it was the one game that used the 'wand' controls as opposed to THE ENTIRE BLOODY CONSOLE, sounds like a pretty bizarre method of damage control on Nintendo's.

That's not really damage control by Nintendo. That's their lawyers saying 'Come at us ************, your shit is wack.'

So... It was just lawyer spinning or wasting time or something? Yes, that's a serious question.

 

[Roxas1359]

snip

...I thought Nintendo just employed the Raccoon Mafia headed by Tom Nook when dealing with these issues. XD

OT: There are some things in life you should never do, one of them is piss of the legal team of Nintendo. The other is the lawyers at Apple, because in all honesty I think Apple's lawyers are probably the only ones that are more ruthless than the Nintendo ones can be, not to mention that Apple is a patent troll as well. Nintendo winning this one is no real surprise, because when comparing one game to an entire console, I think the console will win. XP