Sony and Nintendo face controller patent suit

Lawsuit centres on wireless controller systems

Ian Williams

Nintendo and Sony have been slapped with a lawsuit claiming that both companies infringe on a patent filed in 1996 by the Copper Innovations Group.

The lawsuit, filed in the Pennsylvania Western District Court on 27 December 2007, concerns a 'hand held computer input apparatus and method'.

Advertisement

Patent 5,640,152 claims a "method for remotely controlling a function of a computer monitor or other equipment in response to transmissions from less than all of a plurality of transmitters remote from said equipment".

In essence the patent describes a way to sort the inputs to a system from a group of transmitters by designating and comparing identification numbers assigned to each transmitter.

According to the suit, the technology used to connect the Sixaxis controller to Sony's PlayStation 3 and the Wii-mote to Nintendo's Wii violates the Copper Innovations Group patent.

The Blu-ray Remote Control and Wii Nunchuk were also named as infringing products.

It is unclear why Microsoft has not been named in the suit for its Xbox 360 controller, but some have speculated that it is because the device is not motion sensitive and does not use Bluetooth.

The suit will be particularly bad news for Sony, which has just ended a long patent spat with Immersion over the rumble feature used in PS2 controllers.

Copper Innovations Group is seeking financial damages, interest and legal fees, as well as an injunction prohibiting Sony, Nintendo or their agents from further infringing on the patent.

All parties were unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Tags:

Do you agree?

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

Xperia X1

Video Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

First Looks Editor Ian Williams gets hands on with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

iPhone

Video Review: iPhone 3GS

We put Apple's latest iPhone through its paces

IT white papers

Search white papers

Top categories

Poll

Poll: Summer smartphones

Poll: Summer smartphones

Which smartphone will you be taking to the beach this summer?

View poll results

Advertisement

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Spotlight

a padlock

Microsoft to plug security holes

Microsoft has given advance warning of a number of security...

Nokia handset

Top 10 articles, 10 July 09

No Nokia Android phone, ActiveX attacks and Google enters into...

Can Google beat Microsoft at its own game?

Google's announcement this week that it plans to step into...

iPhone

Video Review: iPhone 3GS

We put Apple's latest iPhone through its paces

Primary Navigation