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Nintendo wins another patent battle over Wii controls

A federal appeals court confirmed a victory against Triton Tech, which alleged Nintendo had infringed its patent

Nintendo today happily announced that it's defeated yet another company that had claimed the Wii was infringing one of its technology patents. A federal appeals court confirmed on June 13 that a patent asserted against Nintendo by Triton Tech of Texas, LLC is invalid.

Triton originally filed a lawsuit in 2010, alleging that the Wii Remote controller infringed one of its patents: U.S. Patent No. 5,181,181. However, Judge Richard A. Jones of the Seattle district court previously dismissed the lawsuit after finding that the patent did not adequately describe a complete invention. The federal appeals court ruling from this past Friday simply upheld that dismissal.

"We are very pleased with this result," said Richard Medway, Nintendo of America's deputy general counsel. "Nintendo has a long tradition of developing unique and innovative products, while respecting the intellectual property rights of others. Nintendo continues to aggressively defend itself against patent trolls. After many years of litigation, the decision today reflects an appropriate resolution of this case."

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James Brightman

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James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously EIC and co-founder of IndustryGamers and spent several years leading GameDaily Biz at AOL prior to that.