The company that sued Nintendo three years ago has just had its then-disputed patents snatched up by the House of Mario.
In 2010, IA Labs sued Nintendo, saying that the Wii Fit exercise peripheral infringed on their patents. That suit got dismissed and IA was ordered to pay Nintendo’s court defence costs. They apparently couldn’t and now Nintendo acquired those same patents in a Maryland sheriff’s sale. Nintendo’s statement on the matter follows:
“Nintendo’s track record demonstrates that we vigorously defend patent lawsuits, like the IA Labs lawsuit, when we believe we have not infringed another party’s patent. This includes holding those who sue Nintendo responsible for the costs and expenses incurred in patent litigation,” said Richard Medway, Nintendo of America’s vice president and deputy general counsel. “Nintendo has a long history of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others.”
The video game giant has recently been on the losing side of patent litigation too, with a recent ruling making it so they have to pay royalties for the camera technology used in the 3DS.
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3 responses to “Nintendo Buys Patents Of Company That Lost Wii Fit Lawsuit”
Why are they buying it then if they aren’t infringing on it? Unless of course they’re stocking up in a patent litigation hungry world or intend on using it and think it’s cheaper to buy the patent than negotiate royalties. It will be interesting to see if they use it offensively or defensively.
Their not “buying” so much as “acquiring” the patents. Since the company cannot pay for the legal defence costs Nintendo then acquired the patents so as part of the assets sell off Nintendo gets the patents.
And second it was the labs that sued Ninty. Not the other way around. They gambled on their patent being unique enough that it was infringed on by Ninty’s tech (and possibly lead to a compensation like the 3DS camera). The court ruled otherwise.
I think they bought it because it cost peanuts and it was safer than letting someone else get their hands on it.