Nintendo’s legal team just earned a star, a bunch of bananas, and a piece of the Triforce.
The gaming company won a patent case in Seattle federal court against Ithaca Ventures and Ithaca Development, who sued Nintendo over the Wii Balance Board. Ithaca claimed that the device, which measures players’ weight and balance for use in Wii games like Wii Fit, infringed on its copyright. Ithaca’s patent, issued in September 2003, was for a “method and device for detecting specific states of movement of a user.”
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Above: The Wii balance board.
Ithaca withdrew its case against Nintendo in Seattle after a German court found that Ithaca’s patent in Europe could not cover the Wii Balance Board. Ithaca had to pay Nintendo’s attorney’s fees.
“Nintendo will vigorously defend its innovations against patent lawsuits, and will not pay to resolve meritless accusations, no matter whether the case is filed in the United States or elsewhere,” said vice president and deputy general counsel Richard Medway of Nintendo of America in a press release sent to GamesBeat.