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Impulse Technology drops patent infringement suit against Nintendo
Impulse Technology Ltd. voluntarily dropped a lawsuit against Nintendo alleging the Wii, Wiimote, Balance Board and Wii Fit Plus infringed on Impulse's patent for the Trazer Interactive Fitness machine. An "unfavorable decision from Judge James Gwin of the U.S. District Court in Cleveland" undermined Impulse's legal arguments.Richard Medway, Nintendo of America's deputy general counsel, was "very pleased with the court's ruling, which forced Impulse to walk away from this lawsuit," he said. "Nintendo vigorously defends patent lawsuits when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party's patent. We will continue our tradition of developing unique and innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others."Impulse similarly sued Microsoft under the same allegations, but relating to its Kinect technology.
Impulse Technology suing Nintendo for patent infringement
Tech developer Impulse Technology -- that name sound familiar? -- has filed a lawsuit against Nintendo and a score of third-party studios, accusing them of violating a 1996 patent for an "interactive system for measuring physiological exertion." The suit is largely based on the weight-tracking Wii Balance Board (and the games which use it, like Wii Fit Plus, Zumba Fitness 2 and UFC Personal Trainer), which Impulse claims too closely resemble its own Trazer Interactive Fitness machine. Normally, we'd scoff at such a lawsuit, especially since Impulse leveraged almost the exact same claims against Microsoft for its Kinect hardware this past July. Still, take a look at the Trazer Interactive Fitness machine, seen above. The resemblance truly is uncanny, right? Right?
Impulse Technology suing Microsoft over Kinect motion tracking
A company called Impulse Technology has filed suit against Microsoft and several game companies over the Kinect hardware and software, claiming that the controller-free motion tracking violates its patents for "System and method for tracking and assessing movement skills in multidimensional space," and "Education system challenging a subject's physiologic and kinesthetic systems to synergistically enhance cognitive function." Microsoft is named for its Kinect hardware, of course, but other companies are included in the suit because they made games that use the Kinect to track body movements. According to Patent Arcade, Impulse is seeking not just money, but a permanent injunction -- which, were it to go through, would force Kinect hardware and software to be shelved in the US.
