Case Closed

Way back in February 2009, Wall Wireless LLC – a company whose primary focus is to enforce patents – took Nintendo to court claiming that it had infringed a patent with the DS and DSi hardware systems. Finally, however, after the United States Patent and Trademark Office cancelled all of the patent claims that Wall Wireless was relying on for its argument, the case was dismissed in a U.S. District court in Texas on 19th May 2014. This follows the decision of the Japanese Patent office, which also found that Nintendo’s products had not violated any of Wall Wireless' Japanese patents.

Nintendo of America’s vice president and deputy general counsel, Richard Medway, had this to say on the matter:

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We are very pleased to see the U.S. case dismissed, and also to have the Japanese Patent Office confirm that Nintendo does not infringe Wall’s Japanese patents. Nintendo vigorously defends patent lawsuits and other proceedings when we believe we have not infringed another party’s patents. It does not matter where such cases are filed or if it takes more than five years to vindicate our position. Nintendo continues to develop unique and innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others.

Patent disputes are common for Nintendo, of course, with the Kyoto company succeeding in the majority of reported cases, though its defeat to Tomita Technologies was a relatively rare and expensive loss. No doubt Nintendo's legal team will remain busy, with Dutch technology giant Philips recently opening proceedings.