Another company has gone to court claiming that the Wii infringes on their patents. Last time, it was the input technology in Nintendo's traditional controllers; this time, the suit deals with elements specific to the Wii, and could result in the Wii becoming unavailable in the US. More so.Hillcrest Laboratories filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission, as well as a patent infringement lawsuit, over the motion-control technology in the Wiimote and the Wii's graphical user interface. "While Hillcrest Labs has a great deal of respect for Nintendo and the Wii," the company stated, "Hillcrest Labs believes that Nintendo is in clear violation of its patents and has taken this action to protect its intellectual property rights.'' Hillcrest currently sells the Freespace technology in their own Loop controller (pictured), and licenses it out to companies including Logitech.
If the International Trade Commission rules in Hillcrest's favor, imports of the Wii and Wii controllers could be blocked. If the lawsuit is successful, Nintendo would most likely just owe Hillcrest a bunch of money.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-21-2008 @ 11:09AM
Creciente said...
Everybody loves -to sue- Nintendo!
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8-21-2008 @ 11:17AM
MrTyzik said...
So no one else is allowed to develop their own orentation-based, tremor canceling, high accuracy, low latency handheld controller? If you want one of those, you are required to license it from these guys? Logitech chose to but I just never understand why someone else can't make it themselves. I highly doubt Nintendo bought the reference hardware (or printed out the patent) and reverse engineered it.
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8-21-2008 @ 11:18AM
Sonic_13 said...
Well, when you put a Wii Remote next to one of those rings, you have to admit it's pretty hard to tell the two apart.
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8-21-2008 @ 11:27AM
c4jones2 said...
Anyone else wonder why products that have been on the market for almost two years get sued for patent infringement... It's almost as if these companies wait to make sure there will be ample money to be made...
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8-21-2008 @ 11:34AM
kavorka said...
I feel bad for Nintendo with all these law suits. They actually manage to be innovative and be successful with it, and everybody wants a piece of the action, legitimately or otherwise. Tell Hillcrest to get over it.
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8-21-2008 @ 1:05PM
Abbii said...
If you go to the Freespace website, the last sentence in the introductory paragraph says "Freespace can also be adapted for use in game controllers".
$20 says that the sentence was added after the Wii came out.
It also has no mention of optical sensors, which is the basis of the Wii remote technology, no?
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8-21-2008 @ 1:58PM
Seth said...
Well, sure, IR sensing is the primary control, but it also has internal accelerometers and processes the input to give the Wii something clean to work with. The lawsuit could refer to any detail in the whole process.
So annoying.
8-21-2008 @ 2:45PM
Mr Khan said...
And so it begins again
Though, hopefully, it won't get as far as that ludicrous Classic Controller one
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8-21-2008 @ 3:11PM
Aaron said...
Did you guys notice that in the "News" section of the Hillcrest Labs website they link to a story published on April 4 2008 titled "In Wii's wake, affordable motion sensors may be at hand"?
Back in April they were willing to simply ride Wii's coattails. Now they're looking for more...
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8-21-2008 @ 3:36PM
Joseph Lundstrom, Jr. said...
I'm just going to start boycotting all products related to companies trying to sue Nintendo. They don't even have the same freakin target audience! BAD FORM! And sorry logitech. You lease from Hillcrest so I guess that means I won't be buying your products either.
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8-21-2008 @ 3:37PM
Joseph Lundstrom, Jr. said...
I'm just going to start boycotting all products related to companies trying to sue Nintendo. They don't even have the same freakin target audience! BAD FORM! And sorry logitech. You lease from Hillcrest so I guess that means I won't be buying your products either.
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8-21-2008 @ 4:56PM
Nightwish said...
Yet another patent troll with another obvious patent. Good, the more this crap happens, the more likely it is for the patent system to be overhauled at last.
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8-21-2008 @ 8:05PM
Highlar said...
Yeah, I've been ravenously reading all the blogs on this one. Because its just so laughable. If you look at the actual patents they are talking about, its hilarious! The fourth one about the screen control method isn't even anything like the Wii Channels. The other three on "motion control" basically try to cover every conceivable kind of remote motion control that anyone could possibly think of. Its SO vague that I can't believe that it was ever allowed to make it through the patent process to begin with! This is just another example of a company trying to sponge off of someone making it big. Its pathetic, and it really needs to stop.
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8-21-2008 @ 8:20PM
zchry said...
The patent on the Guitar Hero guitar peripheral is labeled "Musical Game Controller."
It pays to be vague in the patent industry, but they have to be exact as well, or they won't get patented.
8-21-2008 @ 9:57PM
Highlar said...
Yes, exactly. And none of the patents from this company really seem to be specific about much of ANYTHING. They are FULL of vague references to just about anything that anyone could possibly think of after them.
8-21-2008 @ 8:19PM
zchry said...
Does anyone else think that some companies are actually taking really old patents and prototype schematics or something like that and fleshing them out, claiming to have an actual product?
It seems to me like the reason they're suing so late is because they never had a product, just semi-relevant patents. Has anyone ever seen one of these in a store ever?
I know that probably isn't true, but whatever.
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8-22-2008 @ 2:44AM
Recoil said...
This is as stupid as trying to sue someone for manufacturing bikes, or coffee mugs. It's such a general concept that you simply can't claim full ownership of it.
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8-22-2008 @ 5:55AM
Ninjacrank said...
I am going to patent taking a dump, and whenever anyone goes to drop a deuce I will swirl up out of the U Bend and demand twenty bucks.
My lawyer will of course be hiding in the tank ready to ambush in case negotiations break down.
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8-22-2008 @ 10:40AM
marco said...
Mrtyzik apparently you have never been to asia, they COPY everything, technology, purses, watches, consoles, anything and everything, saying that nintendo doesnt reverse engineer anything is absurd, asians copy everything, copyright doesnt mean squat to them, even the big companies
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8-22-2008 @ 7:05PM
Jerry said...
Way to be racist. "Asians" copy everything? Hardly. illegitimate vendors sell direct copies of products. Most of these products are manufactured in China, but lets not point our fingers at all "Asians" for questionable products from a few knockoff manufacturers. There's plenty of legit Chinese businesses as well.
Nintendo is a legit company.
The Wiimote is not a replication of another product.
9-01-2008 @ 1:35AM
Phil said...
Have a look at the internet archive to see how their site has changed over time... Unfortunately you don't get a lot but it would appear that their market was a hand held 3d mouse more than a game controller... at least IMHO...
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11-01-2008 @ 11:03AM
Kaz said...
Next thing you know, there going to find a way to sue Nintendo for their built-in camera DS.
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