Nintendo Sued By Interlink

By Shawn White / Friday, 08 December 2006

According to a complaint filed with the US District Court in Delaware, California-based Interlink, who produces remote controls and similar devices for business presentations, is suing Nintendo over an alleged patent infringement regarding Wii's motion-sensitive controller.

"Nintendo has made, used, offered for sale and sold in the United States, and continues to make, use, offer for sale and sell in the United States one or more controllers which activities infringe, induce others to infringe, and/or contributorily infringe the '221 patent," the company said.

A diagram of Interlink's patent.

Although the legal filing does not disclose the exact nature of the infringement, Interlink asserted it has "suffered damages, including but not limited to, loss of reasonable royalties, reduced sales and/or lost profits as a result of infringing activities," despite the fact that the Wii Remote is not a replacement for pointers used in business presentations.

The lawsuit is similar to one filed by Immersion - a company that produces haptic feedback (rumble) technology - in 2003 against Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. The latter two console manufacturers agreed to pay Immersion a licensing fee for the technology, but Sony continued litigation and eventually lost. As a result, the electronics giant removed rumble from PlayStation 3's controller.

Nintendo has made no comments regarding Interlink's complaint at this time.

Stay tuned to The Wiire for all the latest developments.