Nintendo Loses Patent Infringement Suit

There is something to be said for those who trudge ahead to weather tough times in the face of mounting pressure. In Nintendo’s case, they chose to fight a patent infringement suit which Microsoft settled out of court. That decision is noble, but ultimately it was a wrong decision, costing the company potentially more than $20 million.

The suit was brought about in 2006 by Anascape. They claimed some of Nintendo’s controller mechanism infringed on their controller patents. A federal jury recently handed them the win, to the tune of $21 million. The infringement occurred with the design of the old GameCube standard, Wavebird, and the Wii classic controllers.  (If Nintendo digs a deeper hole, gamers may in fact see much less of these models out on the market, at least, in their current state.)
Nintendo suits say an appeal is planned, though mostly with the hope of reducing the jury award. Given Wii’s success, it’s not like Nintendo can’t afford this, no matter what the outcome.