Hillcrest sues Nintendo over Wii's technology

[Joshawott 7]

Nintendo's found themselves in more legal trouble. Maryland-based company Hillcrest is suing Nintendo over the use of Wii's motion-sensing capabilities.

------

Hillcrest Laboratories Inc. is vying to stop all imports of Wii and Wii Remotes into the United States, according to a complaint filed today with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, Another suit was filed in a federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland. Hillcrest claims that Nintendo violated their patents over motion controls used by Wii and the remote, and infringed on them again through the Wii Menu interface.

"While Hillcrest Labs has a great deal of respect for Nintendo and the Wii, Hillcrest Labs believes that Nintendo is in clear violation of its patents and has taken this action to protect its intellectual property rights," a spokesperson for Hillcrest commented.

Should Hillcrest win this lawsuit, it could effectively ban all further sales of the Wii console and its peripherals in the US.

A transcript of the official statement filed in Washington says as follows,

[quote][center] Hillcrest Labs has filed a complaint for patent infringement with the
U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, D.C., and a
separate patent infringement suit in the U.S. District Court in
Maryland against Nintendo

[Sahaqiel 1232]

These people are full of such crap. :<
If someone sued over every patent there is, then nobody would get anywhere, and no ideas would get done and made.
They're just jealous that Nintendo's so successful.
Sahaqiel

[Young Link Addict 67]

That's BS. I don't think that you could paten motion sensing. Every company should be able to use it.

Besides if they're suing Nintendo, then why aren't they suing Sony for the PS3. Unless i've been lied to, they put at least a little motion sensing in the PS3 controller.

[Sahaqiel 1232]

Yeah, but it's not in the way that the Wii does it, which is what they're suing for.
They're suing for the pointer like controls and the TV interface.
And please, it's right in front of you. [i]Sensing[/i].
Sahaqiel

[KitsuneChan8888888 0]

Not only is it obvious that these lawsuits are only taking place because of the success of the Wii, but it also seems kind of retarded on the part of the suers. They'll ultimately be doing themselves and everyone else more harm than good, because once people find out that it was them that gave such a popular company problems, and potentially ended their market in the US, no one is going to buy from the suing companies. Their business will plummet, because I'm certain that not only hardcore fans will boycott them, but also the little old ladies that have recently gotten into Nintendo.

[Alex Arbiter 3]

f#$@ not nintendo is crewed

[eyeoftruth 2]

lawl.

[lord jabu jabu 0]

its obvise there just *itching,why are they suing now,cause if it was real they would of sued 2 years ago

[Ferilink 0]

I'm getting annoyed by these smaller companies coming out of nowhere and suing the crap out of nintendo. Seriously, this is ridiculous I hope nintendo wins this one, it's so annoying x__x and i havent had the chance to buy my wii yet -__-; and why now and not before huh? why did they wait so long to sue nintendo over the wii?

[Power2TheToonLink! 0]

This is silly. Why can't people just leave Nintendo alone?
Oh, wait I know why they waited.
The guys suing Ninty over the analogue stick waited even after the GameCube was long dead. Why?
Because Nintendo wasn't as successful as it is now. If they'd sued them ages ago, they would have got barely anything. But now Nintendo have got more money...
They've made themselves more vulnerable to this kind of thing. Nintendo have become a victim of their own success.
Man I'm a pessimist.

[Sentri 1]

i still have a question for anascape...why didnt they sue when the Gamecube came out? huh, huh!

[Tazay 0]

[url="http://www.hillcrestlabs.com/products/index.php"]http://www.hillcrestlabs.com/products/index.php[/url]

Its not even the same thing, sure the wii does that stuff, but their products are both for different things, and behave differently.

[Darkness Master 0]

I've grown sick and tired of hearing stuff like this... why can't we all just get along!?!

[A Jill Sandwich 0]

the only reason why they sued nintendo is because they are a bunch of [spoiler]shmucks[/spoiler] who know Nintendo is kicking [spoiler]ass[/spoiler] and the company had nothing better to do!

[Shrukan 0]

[quote name='TriforceMaster3000']Just don't over react. Nothing will happen. Most of these companies are video game haters anyways and decide to sue companies like Nintendo just to make more money. That's all. And courts can see that too. There's been dozens of cases as I said since it was released, and nothing happened. It was just greed. Nothing more. People are stupid.[/quote]

This ain't going to help at all. I was hopin to get a Wii soon, but if they get sued, I can say good bye to video games.