Nintendo, Hillcrest Labs settle patent infringement case
According to a Bloomberg report, Nintendo and Hillcrest Labs have settled a patent infringement case that was initially brought to the attention of the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2008. Had the case, er, yielded a consumer worst-case scenario, Nintendo could have faced a U.S. import ban on its Wii, the device cited by Hillcrest as containing infringing motion-sensing techno-thingies (academic term).
Neither of the involved companies cared to comment on the settlement's particulars, leaving the question of whether Nintendo reneged and domestically licensed the technology from Hillcrest well in the realm of speculation. Still, the end result has surely been deemed preferable to the Wii's banishment from the United States -- as interesting as that would have made the monthly NPD results.
[Via GamePolitics]
