Wii Fit patent lawsuit dismissed
We know you've been unable to sleep restfully since the announcement of InterAction Laboratories' 2010 lawsuit against Nintendo, so you'll be relieved to know the situation is resolved. Nintendo announced this morning that a Maryland judge has summarily dismissed the case, which alleged that Nintendo's Wii Fit games and Balance Board accessory (among pretty much every other Nintendo peripheral) violated patents owned by IA Labs for exergaming devices.
IA Labs' last announced gaming product was the "XR Station," a controller attached to a big lever, that players must exert pressure on -- push, pull, lean -- to operate. It also showed the "Sqweeze" in 2008: a Wiimote peripheral with two rubber grips to squeeze.
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Nintendo Prevails in Maryland Patent Suit
U.S. District Court Judge Says No Need for Jury Trial
REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- For the third consecutive time this year, Nintendo has prevailed in a patent litigation in the U.S. A Maryland U.S. District Court judge has summarily dismissed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nintendo brought by IA Labs CA, LLC. IA Labs had alleged that the Wii Balance Board accessory and Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus software infringed on one of its patents (U.S. Patent No. 7,121,982).
"Nintendo has a passionate tradition of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others. We vigorously defend patent lawsuits when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party's patent. We refuse to succumb to patent trolls," said Rick Flamm, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of Legal & General Counsel.
For more information about Nintendo, visit http://www.nintendo.com.
About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™ home console, Nintendo 3DS™ and Nintendo DS™ family of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 3.9 billion video games and more than 620 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi™ and Nintendo DSi XL™, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™ and Nintendo GameCube™ systems. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™ and Pokémon™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, please visit the company's website at http://www.nintendo.com.
