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Nintendo wins Wii lawsuit

Judge dismisses patent infringement case brought by Fenner Investments

A patent infringement case brought by Fenner Investments Ltd against Nintendo relating to technology in its Wii and GameCube consoles has been summarily dismissed by a US District Court judge.

The patent affected was listed as number 6,297,751, which reads as follows:

"The joystick port interface includes an integrated circuit receiving an analogue joystick position measurement signal and outputting a digital pulse signal to a processor which signifies a joystick coordinate value. The integrated circuit includes a pulse generator and a bidirectional buffer circuit.

"The bidirectional buffer circuit receives the analog joystick position measurement signal and selectively discharges an RC network capacitor which provides this analogue measurement. This implementation provides a joystick port which uses low-voltage CMOS VLSI structures which can interface a conventional high-voltage joystick with the processor."

The judge ruled against the infringement, and also decided there would be no need for a jury trial.

"We are very pleased with the court's decision," said Rick Flamm, Nintendo of America's senior VP, Legal & General Counsel. "Nintendo has a long history of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others. We also vigorously defend patent lawsuits when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party's patent, despite the risks that this policy entails. I would like to express our sincere appreciation for the tireless efforts of our legal team, which represented us so well."

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