Last night we reported that the U.S. International Trade Commission had agreed to fully investigate the claims made by Hillcrest Laboratories that the Nintendo Wii infringes on four patents they hold for motion-controlled devices.

While this doesn't signal decision on merit, it does mean that it's worth a judge's time to take a close look at it. If the Wii is found to violate Section 337 of the Tariff Act, the Wii can be withdrawn from sale in the U.S.

We contacted Nintendo for comment last night. Their rather straight-forward response just arrived:

Read More »

Don't snigger. Unlike most Wii patent lawsuits, this one sounds a little more serious. Following a complaint filed in August, the U.S. International Trade Commission have agreed to investigate claims made by Hillcrest Laboratories that the Nintendo Wii infringes on four patents they hold for motion-controlled devices. If you're interested, you can check out Hillcrest's tech here. While the ITC clearly state that this does not signal any decision on the merits of the case, it does mean their judges will be taking a good, long look at it, and if they think Hillcrest have a case to make, will kick things up a notch. For the record, goods that violate Section 337 of the Tariff Act (which is what Nintendo are being accused of by Hillcrest) can, if found guilty, be withdrawn from sale in the US, since the law was established to prevent foreign imports from infringing upon American patents.

Read More »

Insert Credit has unearthed some patents from the early days of videogaming that are.. special.

There are some great little nuggets here, from an early design for the Nintendo Powerglove — sorry, "Forearm mounted multi-axis remote control unit" — to a 'button presser' that lets you hit two buttons alternately by rolling the device back and forth. This sounds ridiculous, until you think about Track & Field.

There is even a slice of true console history in the form of a prototype for the first NES cartridge.

My favourite, though, has to be the SEGA racing controller/game pictured above that has an actual model car that moves left to right on a shelf in front of your TV. Come on SEGA, the time is right for this thing to see the light of day - bring it out on a current-gen console & you will clean up.

News: Old videogame patents [InsertCredit via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Getting your hands on a Wavebird, Classic Controller, or Nintendo GameCube could shortly become very difficult as Nintendo faces a ban on all three devices, following a failed attempt to overturn the verdict in a $US 21-million dollar patent infringement suit brought on by Texas-based Anascape Ltd. U.S. District Judge Ron Clark plans on issuing the ban on these Nintendo products tomorrow, giving the company a chance to avoid the ban by posting bond or placing royalties in an Escrow account. According to Anascape lawyer Doug Cawley, the ban will be placed on hold while Nintendo appears on the Federal level.

Read More »

Yes, another nutty lawsuit. This one gets the "nutty" tag because of the timeframes involved. A Mr. John R. Martin, from Illinois, claims that the Nintendo DS infringes upon a patent he holds for "touch screen and pointing device gaming technology", filed in August, 2005 (pictured). Only problem? The DS was released in 2004. Bonus problem? While his patent applies to a touch-screen gaming device, it's for a gambling device, one more concerned with GPS and gambling laws than with male cheerleading or phantom hourglasses.

Nintendo Faces Patent Lawsuit, Apparently Over DS Touch Screen [GamePolitics]

A patent's been uncovered by VentureBeat, which Apple first filed in November 2006. It's for a pointer/remote device, that communicates via IR, and has a sensor bar you place in front of the tellie to detect 3D movement. You know, just like a Wii Remote. The patent states the following:

...the absolute x- and y-positions of [the] remote control can be used, for example, in video games to position a user's character or to otherwise track the movement of the remote control in a user's environment.

Read More »

Oh the Pwnage drama just won't stop.

Last weekend we reported that Futuremark Games had filed a trademark for Pwnage, later that week Jukka Mäkinen, Executive Producer, Futuremark Games Studio, responded claiming that they only filed the trademark because they wanted to "protect ourselves from squatters".

MTV, quick to poke fun, tracked down one of the folks who work at Pwned.Com to see what they think about the whole legal silliness.

"PWNED.com is a site for gamers pure and simple. We never felt the need to trademark the word we never created. We do this for fun. We are looking into our options because of this".

Yes, that's right, we need someone to trademark Pwned too.

'Pwned.com' Weighs In On 'Pwnage' Trademark Attempt [MTV Multiplayer]

Yeah, we're a little sick of the rumour merry-go-round on this one too, but it's OK. This one's not a rumour. It's a patent application, and those are much more exciting! This application's for a gaming phone, which Sony filed back in 2006. While it looks like a double-sided phone, it's actually packing an iPhone-like full-screen touchscreen, allowing the device to emulate the interface of both a Sony Ericsson phone and a PSP. Course, this has never actually turned up, and in the iPhone's wake probably never will, but sometimes it's nice to just close your eyes and imagine what could have been, you know?
ORIENTATION BASED MULTIPLE MODE MECHANICALLY VIBRATED TOUCH SCREEN DISPLAY [USPTO, via Unwired View, via Pocketgamer]

Read More »

Over on Gamasutra, designer Ernest Adams has posted an interesting piece on video game software patents. He argues that not only are such patents morally gray, but that they are too encompassing—citing an example from Namco's PSOne version of Ridge Racer in which they patented, we kid you not, load-time minigames. He explains:

The US Patent and Trademark Office has taken a much more vague approach to determining what may or may not be patented. Its guidelines for patent examiners requires that the invention produce a concrete, useful, and tangible result, and gameplay patents are being allowed.

Read More »

A recently published patent application from Nintendo reveals that the company has patented a series of hilariously oddball Wii peripherals, possibly attempting head off some more questionable add-ons from third party peripheral manufacturers. If you thought the Wii Wheel, Wii Balance Board and Wii Zapper were something else, you haven't seen anything yet.

Read More »