ShareThis
About a million years ago (okay, more like a few years ago), company iLife Technologies, Inc. sued Nintendo for patent infringement pertaining to the latter’s Wii Remote controllers. Three years ago, iLife won its case against Nintendo, with an award of $10.1 million issued. Nintendo wasn’t having it, however, as during the proceedings of that case five of iLife’s patent claims were invalidated. Nintendo fought back, and now the $10.1 million dollar ruling has been reversed and is no longer owed to iLife.
That might not sound like the biggest deal, but it’s quite the victory for Nintendo. As reported by Nintendo Life, the claims made by iLife were simply too broad and not able to be patented, in the first place. Ryan Meyer, an intellectual property attorney at law firm and gaming IP specialist Dorsey & Whitney, notes that “the iLife decision is a warning to patentees, particularly with respect to computer hardware-implemented inventions, that overly broad claims are more likely to be found to be patent ineligible. As a precaution, patentees should identify the most inventive features of their invention and draft at least some claims directed specifically to those features.”
Moving forward, Nintendo will likely be able to breathe a bit easier.
Source: Nintendo Life
