Nintendo to Pay Millions in Wii Controller Patent Infringement

Nintendo has been ordered to pay $21 million (£10.8 million) to Anascape, a Texas-based company, for infringement of patents relating to controllers.

A jury at the Texas Eastern District Court found that Nintendo had infringed on patents with production of its Wii Classic, WaveBird and Gamecube controllers following a trial last week.

A Nintendo spokesman, Charlie Scibetta, said that the company will appeal the decision, expecting that the court will reduce the amount “significantly”. Nintendo has not said that it hopes to see the suit overturned entirely, however.

The spokesman also said that Nintendo is pleased that the Wii Remote and Nunchuck were not found to infringe Anascape patents.

The lawsuit was originally filed back in 2006. Microsoft was also sued, but The Lufkin Daily News reports that the company reached an out of court settlement with Anascape. Details of the deal were kept confidential. You can find details of that original filing and the patents allegedly infringed here.

Microsoft's reaching an out of court settlement while another company named in a suit continues to battle through the courts may seem familiar. It mirrors Microsoft's settlement with Immersion Corp. over claims centring around rumble technology while Sony continued to battle onwards. Where Nintendo has lost out through the courts, however, Sony eventually reached a settlement with Immersion itself.

^{Sources: AP, Lufkin Daily News}