Hillcrest Laboratories files patent infringement suit against Nintendo

by JC Fletcher { Aug 21st 2008 at 10:55AM }

Another company has gone to court claiming that the Wii infringes on their patents. Last time, it was the input technology in Nintendo's traditional controllers; this time, the suit deals with elements specific to the Wii, and could result in the Wii becoming unavailable in the US. More so.

Hillcrest Laboratories filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission, as well as a patent infringement lawsuit, over the motion-control technology in the Wiimote and the Wii's graphical user interface. "While Hillcrest Labs has a great deal of respect for Nintendo and the Wii," the company stated, "Hillcrest Labs believes that Nintendo is in clear violation of its patents and has taken this action to protect its intellectual property rights.'' Hillcrest currently sells the Freespace technology in their own Loop controller (pictured), and licenses it out to companies including Logitech.

If the International Trade Commission rules in Hillcrest's favor, imports of the Wii and Wii controllers could be blocked. If the lawsuit is successful, Nintendo would most likely just owe Hillcrest a bunch of money.

Tags: hillcrest, lawsuit, patent

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Creciente @ Aug 21st 2008 11:09AM

Everybody loves -to sue- Nintendo!

MrTyzik @ Aug 21st 2008 11:17AM

So no one else is allowed to develop their own orentation-based, tremor canceling, high accuracy, low latency handheld controller? If you want one of those, you are required to license it from these guys? Logitech chose to but I just never understand why someone else can't make it themselves. I highly doubt Nintendo bought the reference hardware (or printed out the patent) and reverse engineered it.

Sonic_13 @ Aug 21st 2008 11:18AM

Well, when you put a Wii Remote next to one of those rings, you have to admit it's pretty hard to tell the two apart.

c4jones2 @ Aug 21st 2008 11:27AM

Anyone else wonder why products that have been on the market for almost two years get sued for patent infringement... It's almost as if these companies wait to make sure there will be ample money to be made...

kavorka @ Aug 21st 2008 11:34AM

I feel bad for Nintendo with all these law suits. They actually manage to be innovative and be successful with it, and everybody wants a piece of the action, legitimately or otherwise. Tell Hillcrest to get over it.

Abbii @ Aug 21st 2008 1:05PM

If you go to the Freespace website, the last sentence in the introductory paragraph says "Freespace can also be adapted for use in game controllers".

$20 says that the sentence was added after the Wii came out.

It also has no mention of optical sensors, which is the basis of the Wii remote technology, no?

Seth @ Aug 21st 2008 1:58PM

Well, sure, IR sensing is the primary control, but it also has internal accelerometers and processes the input to give the Wii something clean to work with. The lawsuit could refer to any detail in the whole process.

So annoying.

Mr Khan @ Aug 21st 2008 2:45PM

And so it begins again

Though, hopefully, it won't get as far as that ludicrous Classic Controller one

Aaron @ Aug 21st 2008 3:11PM

Did you guys notice that in the "News" section of the Hillcrest Labs website they link to a story published on April 4 2008 titled "In Wii's wake, affordable motion sensors may be at hand"?

Back in April they were willing to simply ride Wii's coattails. Now they're looking for more...

Joseph Lundstrom, Jr. @ Aug 21st 2008 3:36PM

I'm just going to start boycotting all products related to companies trying to sue Nintendo. They don't even have the same freakin target audience! BAD FORM! And sorry logitech. You lease from Hillcrest so I guess that means I won't be buying your products either.

Joseph Lundstrom, Jr. @ Aug 21st 2008 3:37PM

Nightwish @ Aug 21st 2008 4:56PM

Yet another patent troll with another obvious patent. Good, the more this crap happens, the more likely it is for the patent system to be overhauled at last.

Highlar @ Aug 21st 2008 8:05PM

Yeah, I've been ravenously reading all the blogs on this one. Because its just so laughable. If you look at the actual patents they are talking about, its hilarious! The fourth one about the screen control method isn't even anything like the Wii Channels. The other three on "motion control" basically try to cover every conceivable kind of remote motion control that anyone could possibly think of. Its SO vague that I can't believe that it was ever allowed to make it through the patent process to begin with! This is just another example of a company trying to sponge off of someone making it big. Its pathetic, and it really needs to stop.

zchry @ Aug 21st 2008 8:20PM

The patent on the Guitar Hero guitar peripheral is labeled "Musical Game Controller."

It pays to be vague in the patent industry, but they have to be exact as well, or they won't get patented.

Highlar @ Aug 21st 2008 9:57PM

Yes, exactly. And none of the patents from this company really seem to be specific about much of ANYTHING. They are FULL of vague references to just about anything that anyone could possibly think of after them.

zchry @ Aug 21st 2008 8:19PM

Does anyone else think that some companies are actually taking really old patents and prototype schematics or something like that and fleshing them out, claiming to have an actual product?

It seems to me like the reason they're suing so late is because they never had a product, just semi-relevant patents. Has anyone ever seen one of these in a store ever?

I know that probably isn't true, but whatever.

Recoil @ Aug 22nd 2008 2:44AM

This is as stupid as trying to sue someone for manufacturing bikes, or coffee mugs. It's such a general concept that you simply can't claim full ownership of it.

Ninjacrank @ Aug 22nd 2008 5:55AM

I am going to patent taking a dump, and whenever anyone goes to drop a deuce I will swirl up out of the U Bend and demand twenty bucks.

My lawyer will of course be hiding in the tank ready to ambush in case negotiations break down.

marco @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:40AM

Mrtyzik apparently you have never been to asia, they COPY everything, technology, purses, watches, consoles, anything and everything, saying that nintendo doesnt reverse engineer anything is absurd, asians copy everything, copyright doesnt mean squat to them, even the big companies

Jerry @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:05PM

Way to be racist. "Asians" copy everything? Hardly. illegitimate vendors sell direct copies of products. Most of these products are manufactured in China, but lets not point our fingers at all "Asians" for questionable products from a few knockoff manufacturers. There's plenty of legit Chinese businesses as well.

Nintendo is a legit company.

The Wiimote is not a replication of another product.