RSSWii Classic controller in jeopardy after Nintendo loses patent appeal
By Tim Conneally | Published July 23, 2008, 1:25 PM
A patent infringement suit over some of Nintendo's game controllers will enter a Federal Court of Appeals following the $21 million verdict in favor of plaintiff Anascape.
In May, Texas-based Anascape won $21 million dollars from Nintendo in a patent infringement suit filed against the company for its game controller design. At the time, it was not disclosed which aspects were found to be in violation, but Nintendo said the Wiimote and nunchuck (part of its industry-leading Wii console) were safe.
As it turns out, the devices in violation of Anascape's patents were the Wii Classic, Wavebird, and GameCube controllers -- more specifically, their analog stick architecture. Now, these controllers could face discontinuation following U.S. District Court Judge Ron Clark's denial of Nintendo's bid to overturn the $21 million verdict, unless Nintendo puts the money in escrow or posts bond.
Nintendo will appeal the verdict in the Federal Circuit court of Appeals, delaying the possibility of a ban until the trial is complete.
Anascape's Lawyer Doug Cawley was quoted last week as accusing Nintendo of "clogging the channel," since Sony agreed to license Anascape's patent in 2004, and Microsoft settled out of court on the first of May. The company allegedly has interests beyond litigation and actually wants to begin production of its own controllers.
The suit from Anascape came shortly after Sony and Microsoft ended a similar controller patent battle with Immersion, the company that holds the "touch feedback" patent. That suit initially could have resulted in an injunction on Sony's DualShock controllers, but ultimately ended with a $121 million settlement.
lol Just went out today and got two more Classic Game cube controllers so I could have one for each port for party games.
Figures that one of the better controllers are now about to be forced off the market. I mean I use the Gamecube controller on my PC too for BF2 cause it have more controller options for all the surfaces. Works very nicely for Helos...
Anyways...
back to Wii Sports... Thankfully the Wii Controller is not going away, much to the regret of MS and Sony who is always claiming the Wii is not a competitor. lol yea right. ok then. Whatever floats your boat... I'll stick with the innovative Wii any day over more lard producing games from MS and Sony.
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The power of the almighty dollar and the power of greed at its finest. Really, who gives a $hit.
Actually, I built my own controller to use with the original Nintendo that combined the classic Atari joystick and the pad design. Isn't that covered under "prior art" or some other silly thing? I was my 24 million!!
No, not really.
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