Philips calling on the law to ban the Wii U in the US

Nicholas Fearn Gaming
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Courtroom intrigue today as Phillips announced it’s taking Nintendo to court over patent infringement. If it wins, the Wii U could be banned from sale in the States.

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The company claims that Nintendo’s Wii and Wii U consoles infringe a patent it registered in 1996, listed as a “Virtual Body Control Device”, which is a way consoles replicate life-based action in games (yes, patents are this tenuous).

Nintendo’s Wii remote has also been accused of infringing a patent, based on the way it is able is able to communicate with the console as a pointing device.

Apparently, Nintendo was made aware of these patent infringements in 2011. But now Phillips is looking to step things up by making a claim to the US courts. If it wins, the Wii U could be banned from sale. This isn’t without precedent – a couple of years ago Samsung’s Galaxy Tab was banned from sale for similar reasons.

Rumours that Nintendo has managed to recruit Phoenix Wright to defend it so far remain unconfirmed.

Nicholas Fearn
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2 comments

  • Can someone please explain to me how a patent filed in 2009 can retroactively apply to a device released in 2006? The “remote pointer” patent was filed three years after the release of the Wii but somehow Nintendo infringed on it?

  • Can someone please explain to me how a patent filed in 2009 can retroactively apply to a device released in 2006? The “remote pointer” patent was filed three years after the release of the Wii but somehow Nintendo infringed on it?

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