Nintendo faces ban on some Wii, GameCube controllers
Unless Nintendo complies with a federal judge's order by Thursday, the company will be faced with a ban on several of its controllers, Bloomberg reports.
Though the Wii Remote is safe, Nintendo faces a possible ban on the sale of controllers, like this one for GameCube.
(Credit: Nintendo)A judge for the U.S. Court in the Eastern District of Texas failed to overturn a verdict entered against the Japanese video game maker on July 18. The company had been previously ordered to pay $21 million to Anascape, a Texas company that holds a patent on motion-sensitive controllers.
After declining to order a new trial as Nintendo had requested, Judge Ron Clark instead is scheduled to issue a ban on the sale of the Wii Classic Controller, WaveBird controller, and GameCube controller. (Anascape said that Nintendo's Wii Remote and Wii Nunchuk controllers also infringe on U.S. Patent No. 6,906,700, which describes a "3D controller with vibration," but a jury disagreed.)
Nintendo will have to post a bond or put royalties in an escrow account to avoid the halt, according to Anascape's attorney, but Nintendo said it was already planning on filing an appeal, which should effectively put the ban on hold.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 
**** you, judge.
The federal government has made it VERY clear that people like Anascape are the DEFINITION of patent trolls, and I don't know how any judge with more than 3 functioning braincells could have made this decision, in all honesty.
Wikipedia page created. Apparently someone tried to create a page last june, but it was deleted, as nothing had yet happened with the lawsuit.
Really... more importantly where is this "magical" company? I failed to find a link to them on google, just stories of this lawsuit.
And... what about them also suing Microsoft over their controllers? So why aren't they also suing Sony?? Come on CNET, that's news too isn't it?!
This is all about "vaporware" and greed in my opinion, similar to the lawsuit that Gibson has tried to pursue against Guitar Hero for copyright infringement of "technologies that simulate a live concert event" that they filed years ago. Funny that they didn't mention it until the latest version came out! Smells of lawyers (or similar bottom-feeders) looking for "loopholes" to generate additional income/royalties doesn't it?
@#$% that judge, the lawyers and non-company for wasting the courtroom's (and our!) time.
- by sting7k August 21, 2008 5:51 AM PDT
- Wow, so retarded. I have one question though for this company. Why are they singling out Nintendo? Shouldn't they be suing Sony and Microsoft as well? I mean Sony's dualshock controllers and Microsoft's Xbox controllers are nearly exactly the same as the Gamecube, Wii Classic, and Wavebird (just some different shapes). So whats the deal? If you look at their "patent" it doesn't even have a drawing, picture, or blue print. It's just vague descriptions of a controller to play video games with.
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- by mrcockrell June 12, 2009 12:03 AM PDT
- actually they are suing Microsoft too i believe
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