Move over rumble lawsuit, hello Wiimote lawsuit!
A company named… hold on, let me check my notes. Immersion… no. Irrelevant…no… Oh, right, here it is. A company named Interlink is trying to cash in on the Wii’s success by claiming the Wiimote technology infringes on a patent. Like hokey celebrity dance competitions, its seems that suing successful game companies for a quick buck is all the rage these days.
It’s really too bad, but I think with this case you’re likely to see a dismissal. Just read through the PDF that Kotaku has today and you’ll see that beyond the picture, the inner workings of each are quite different. Still, it will be interesting to see what the lawyers do on this one. Does Nintendo silently shut them up with cold cash, or stand up for itself and take out yet another patent squatter who had no intention of actually selling a product?
Here’s a fun fact: Did you that once upon a time, patents were used to encourage innovation, not stifle it? Weird, huh?
[UPDATE: Infendo reader Josh D. sent in this tip just as I was finishing up this post, but I’m going to thank him anyway!]