[News] Nintendo vs. Interlink

Quote:

"Wii-mote" trigger prompts lawsuit
User-interface specialist Interlink cries foul, files patent infringement lawsuit against Nintendo of America.
By Curt Feldman, GameSpot
Posted Dec 8, 2006 12:13 pm PT

While most in the game industry view the Wii's unconventionally shaped controller as something unique, there's one company that has a different view of the device.

Interlink Electronics, Inc., a California company that specializes in the design and manufacturing of interface devices, on Monday filed a complaint against Nintendo's US subsidiary, Nintendo of America, accusing it of patent infringement. Interlink's products include devices to assist in PowerPoint presentations, conference room keyboards, and portable speakers.

Interlink filed its complaint, first reported by Kotaku, in US District Court in Delaware.

The complaint alleges that the trigger on the bottom of the Wii controller infringes on Interlink Patent No. 6,850,221 (Trigger Operated Electronic Device), which the company secured on February 1, 2005. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata first presented the Wii controller to the public not too long after that date, during the 2005 Tokyo Game Show.

The drawings (above) that accompanied the patent application--first filed on September 17, 1997--do look suspiciously similar to the Wii trigger, but in the filing, Interlink offers scant detail of exactly how Nintendo currently infringes on the '221 patent, stating only that "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 complaint seeks a jury trial and damages to determine the amount of "loss of reasonable royalties, reduced sales and/or lost profits as a result of the infringing activities."

This lawsuit brought by Interlink recalls the legal wrangling Microsoft and Sony found themselves in when Immersion Corp. brought lawsuits against those two console giants. Back in 2003, Immersion hauled those console makers into court, alleging patent infringement of Immersion's "haptic" technology, which allows gamers to feel controllers vibrate as they react to onscreen action. Microsoft eventually settled with Immersion, while Sony went to the mat, suffering defeat at the bench and paying Immersion Corp. more that $80 million in damages.

Source.

I'm going to call a big "What the Fuck?" here.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Uh, okay. So now no one can ever put a trigger on a remote, or Interlink will sue them. Seriously, the US patent system is ridiculously stupid. People patent all sorts of obvious crap, then sit on their patents waiting to sue anyone who comes up with anything vaguely similar.

So Interlink is claiming that because of the Wiimote, they have suffered "loss of reasonable royalties, reduced sales and/or lost profits as a result of the infringing activities." Right, I'm sure there were loads of people who thought "Hm, I was going to get that mouse/pointer for business meetings, but now I'll just get a Nintendo Wii and Zelda instead!" If the court doesn't dismiss this in five minutes, then I will lose what little faith I had left in them.

Oh wait, why even worry, Nintendo's got the best defense attorney ever.


There's nowhere I can't reach.

well the whole sony and microsoft thing made sense. the nintendo suing is stupid - why not sue them for the n64 controller? it had a trigger on the back, and it works more like the pointing device than the wii remote does (thumb stick is closer to touchpad than free 3d space movement).

Originally Posted by StarmanDX

If the court doesn't dismiss this in five minutes, then I will lose what little faith I had left in them.

i feel the same way

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Not to mention the light gun, which had a trigger and was a pointing device. I don't see how non-competing products can be compared in this way. :\

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

It gets deeper. Customers of Interlink products include Microsoft and some other company you mightn't have hheard of called Sony.
At least that what their official website claims.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I've see triggers on wireless paraphernalia for years before the Wii came out, with the same motion sensing technology; it's nothing new at all, but I doubt all those companies will be sued >_<. This is just an opportunistic grab for cash.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

The infringement isn't the fact that it has a trigger, but how the trigger works. The trigger that Interlink & the Wii uses is a slide based trigger, not a hinge based trigger like the 360 & PS3.

Ulysses: It doesn't matter how long something's been around for, it just matters who copywrote what first. Vibrators have been around for decades however Sony & MS still managed to get sued by immersion, it's not because the two were using vibrators, but what kind of vibrators. In this case it's not that the Wii has a trigger, it's how the trigger operates.

So far Interlink hasn't given us a lot yet, only some paperwork and drawings, while things do look similar, we're going to have to wait and see what the experts say in court to tell if Interlink really has a case or not. Eitherway, I've got my Wii already so I'm happy.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Slayer X

The infringement isn't the fact that it has a trigger, but how the trigger works. The trigger that Interlink & the Wii uses is a slide based trigger, not a hinge based trigger like the 360 & PS3.

And you heard this where? I've looked up dozens of articles, but seen nothing but:

Quote:

but in the filing, Interlink offers scant detail of exactly how Nintendo currently infringes on the '221 patent, stating only that "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."

Regardless, this is still obviously a case of some struggling company that doesn't even make gaming products (unlike Immersion) trying to make some money, especially considering, as one Gamespot commentor pointed out, that earlier this year they were sued for illegally artificially inflating the price of their stock. I doubt their connections to Microsoft and Sony have much to do with it, but on the note of RABicle's link, it looks like their site has been hacked. "Database error: MySQL Connection could not be achieved."

Originally Posted by Slayer X

Eitherway, I've got my Wii already so I'm happy.

And you'd be even happier if Interlink wins and the Wii gets taken off the market, right?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Starman: How the trigger works on the Wii I'll admit is an observation that I've made for I can't find any pictures of the official Wiimote design to say that it is a hinge, and I know that Interlink's trigger is a slide by simply looking at the pictures they filed with the patent. Also if it wasn't how the trigger works and just that it has a trigger then Microsoft and Sony would have been sued. Unless the reason why they wern't is as PS3icle said about MS & Sony having shares in Interlink, and if that's the case then the case will be thrown out of court based on conflict of interest and you won't have to worry abot anything.

As for the final part I said it was a joke, ha ha, you don't need to take it so seariously.

How ya doing, buddy?

The lawsuit is based on conductive properties of the trigger. It is a valid suit and one I think Interlink is going to end up winning. It seems this has more validity than the Immersion lawsuit as Interlink has been actively selling technology to other companies making use of this patent unlike Immersion which was simply patent squatting.

I have a feeling Nintendo is either going to have to pay out a small licensing fee for every Wii remote sold or they are going to need to change the design slightly.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Valid is subjective, given the technology used in the wii certainly is NOT cutting into the sales of their products. Similar design does not mean same application. Patents in that regard, are just plain stupid. Oh well.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

They don't have to be used for exactly the same purpose for it to be patent infringement. If this company came up with a new, novel design and Nintendo was inspired/copied it, then Interlink deserves some compensation for their prior work.

A quick example I think you guys might be more likely to agree with is what IBM (or whoever's making their consumer laptops now) did in order to make their drop-proof systems. Instead of starting from scratch trying to develop their own impact-detection systems and algorithms they licensed technology from automobile manufacturers on how to deploy airbag systems. They then modified it slightly in order to work for buffeting the fall of a harddrive inside of a laptop during a five foot drop. Do you think IBM should have been able to send someone in, steal GM's computer code, and then use it in their devices just because they aren't in the same market?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

You make a good point, but you can't doubt that it's not done for the sole purpose of them collecting cash, since there have been quite a few things that have used this and none of them got sued or anything. It's only when some big, popular company comes up and makes something popular that they sue. Hell, they could have sued way back in 2005 when Nintendo first showed the controller. But they waited until it released everywhere, showing how big of a hit it was.

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However that doesn't seem to matter to the goverment. Immersion could have sued Sony ten years ago, however they waited nine years before saying anything and as you know, Immersion still won the case. So the wait of a single year after Nintendo announced the Wii I don't think is as suspicious in comparison., nor do I think that it will matter to the courts.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Damn, if worst comes to worst, I need to pick one up NOW. Along with all 4 Wiimotes+nunchucks. That'll definitely set me back financially after doing the math.

FELIPE NO

They didn't sure the other people because it wouldn't be profitable. What good is protecting your intellectual property if you lose money off of it? They also waited until now because Nintendo can't re-engineer every controller they've manufactured, they're stuck with what they've created so far and have to pay royalties on the design (if Interlink wins, that is). If they had sued before, it would have just made Nintendo change the design and Interlink only loses money on the litigation.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

If Interlink is hoping for a quick settlement and quick profit, I doubt they’d get one. Nintendo isn’t going to roll over and play dead -remember, if Hollywood weren’t able to take them down over Donkey Kong/King Kong, you’d have to wonder what chance a company like Interlink has.

As for the theft analogy, who’s to say Nintendo won’t claim their trigger is an evolution of it’s own Z trigger, patented in 1996?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Evolution or not, if you design something then you need to patent it to protect it. Even if they said that Interlink copied their Z trigger, it doesn't matter because Interlink patented their design first, and a patent is a patent, after it's been issued there's nothing you can do. If Nintendo wanted to make the B trigger their own they should have made it an analog trigger and not a digital one.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

If Nintendo has documented prior work to Interlink's design then the patent shouldn't matter (assuming that it's working by an identical design). Nintendo could file for their own patent to deprive Interlink of theirs, since Nintendo would have the original designs and work on it. Of course, I know there's a grace period for which you hold exclusive rights to an idea after you've made it public, though I suppose that's probably passed by this point.

How ya doing, buddy?

Hey guys, I own the patent to the sandwich now. All that eating of stuff between two slices of bread you've been doing all these years, yeah well now you gotta pay me some royalities if you want to get your sandwich on.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

Hey guys, I own the patent to the sandwich now. All that eating of stuff between two slices of bread you've been doing all these years, yeah well now you gotta pay me some royalities if you want to get your sandwich on.

Fuck you, Acer. I've just made a chicken sandwich just to spite you

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'll be seeing you in court for damages, Kilroy.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

But what if Interlink wins and the Wiis get taken off the market?

1) Phoenix Wright will hunt him down
2) Nintendo fanboys will nuke the head office
3) No one buys their products as a result
4) Microsoft buys them to "innovate" the Xbox brand.

Meh. Seriously, Nintendo should come out unscathed considering the arguments they could use. Plus how is a powerpoint pointer losing sales to a game controller?

FELIPE NO