Federal court dismisses Wiimote patent case against Nintendo

Nintendo has prevailed in yet another patent lawsuit, this time against Texas company UltimatePointer LLC, regarding a case we first reported on in 2011. UltimatePointer asserted that Nintendo's Wiimote infringed on its patent for an "Easily Deployable Interactive Direct-Pointing System and Presentation Control System and Calibration Method Therefor." In a Seattle federal court, Judge Robert S. Lasnik ruled that the Wiimote does not infringe on UltimatePointer's patent and found that a number of the company's claims were invalid, meaning no trial is required.

Nintendo of America Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Richard Medway offered the following statement about the decision: "We are very pleased with these decisions, which confirmed Nintendo's position from the beginning – we do not, nor have we ever, infringed these patents. The result in this case, once again, demonstrates that Nintendo will continue to vigorously defend its innovations against patent lawsuits, even if it must do so in multiple courts and commit significant resources to defend itself. Nintendo continues to support reform efforts to reduce the unnecessary and inefficient burden patent cases like this one place on technology companies in the United States."

And now this one gets thrown in the "backlinks about Nintendo patent disputes" pile. Electronics company Philips recently won a dispute in the UK against Nintendo regarding the Wii and Wii U's use of a camera and motion-sensing technology. Nintendo plans to appeal the UK decision, and Philips has filed against Nintendo in the US as well.