Patent Arcade

As indicated in a previous post, Anascape Ltd., an invention and license-holding company, sued Microsoft and Nintendo for patent infringement over their controllers for their respective video game console systems. Microsoft settled before trial. Nintendo went to trial and lost. On Thursday, June 26, 2008, District Judge Ron Clark of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas denied Nintendo's claim that the payment to Anascape was excessive, for damages related to patent infringement of Nintendo's WaveBird and Gamecube controllers for the GameCube and Wii Classic controller for the Wii (the jury decided that the Nunchuk did not infringe Anascape's patents). Clark also tossed Nintendo's request for a new trial.

The patents in the case were U.S. Patent Numbers 5,999,084; 6,102,802; 6,135,886; 6,208,271; 6,222,525; 6,343,991; 6,344,791; 6,347,997; 6,351,205; 6,400,303; 6,563,415; and 6,906,700.

The case is Anascape Ltd. v. Microsoft Corp. et al., case number 9:06-cv-158, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

We'll keep you posted of further developments.