Nintendo's Wiimote tapped for patent infringement by Hillcrest Labs
Nintendo just can't seem to keep its nose out of patent troubles, with its highly successful Wii now the target of a new patent lawsuit from Hillcrest Labs, which claims that its patents for "a handheld three-dimensional pointing device" and the gloriously vague "navigation interface display system that graphically organizes content for display on a television" which apparently predate Nintendo's own. At least we're not dealing with a complete patent troll here: Hillcrest Labs does have a product based on its technology, called The Loop remote (pictured left), based on what it calls "Freespace" motion control technology. It's fairly clear Freespace is a much different beast than the Wiimote, and we'd like to believe something so vague as a handheld 3D pointing device (a very un-new concept) isn't enough to best Nintendo in a court of law, but naturally Hillcrest is requesting Nintendo stop shipping Wiis to the States (that shouldn't be hard, huh Nintendo? Yuk, yuk.) and reward Hillcrest with unspecified monetary damages.
