Nintendo ordered to pay $10m in Wii patent lawsuit
A jury at the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas has ruled in favour of iLife Technologies against Nintendo of America over technology used in the Nintendo Wii.
After iLife Technologies filed the suit in 2013, the case was decided on Monday, August 28, with the jury ruling that Nintendo of America had infringed US patent number 6,864,796 and must pay over $10 million in damages.
In the initial complaint, iLife stated Nintendo of America had infringed six of its patents relating to a system and method for analysing activity of a body.
The Nintendo Wii is a home video games console in which the controller is used as a handheld pointing device which detects movement.
The patented technology owned by iLife was initially used to detect sudden death syndrome in babies and to detect falls by the elderly.
iLife said that the technology was used in 36 million Wii consoles, and was originally seeking royalties of $4 per console for a total of $144 million.
Nintendo had countersued and tried to invalidate the patents, including launching unsuccessful suits against Fitbit and Jawbone, which both had a patent licensing agreement with iLife.
Lead counsel in the case for iLife, Mike Wilson of Munck Wilson Mandala, said to Dallas News: “We feel like we were vindicated really. They denied infringement, they denied validity of the patent, and we feel like the jury did a good job in assessing the case.”
Nintendo has reportedly said it plans to appeal against the ruling.
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