Hagens Berman filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nintendo Ltd. and Nintendo of America Inc. alleging that several Nintendo Wii games, including the Wii Sports series, infringe patents owned by a small competitor that produced similar sports-themed motion control games years before Nintendo.
Shinsedai Company, Limited (“SSD”) began releasing a number of motion-controller based sports games under its XaviX brand in 2004, including XaviXTENNIS and XaviXBASEBALL. According to the complaint, these games predated the Nintendo Wii. The lawsuit alleges that Nintendo was exposed to the technology introduced by the XaviX line and used it as the basis for the development of sports games for the Wii.
The case, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California – San Diego division, alleges that Nintendo’s Wii Sports products infringed on U.S. Patents 7,932,908 (“the ‘908 patent”), 8,049758 (“the ‘758 patent”), 7,635,301(“the ‘301 Patent”) and 7,839,382 (“the ‘382 Patent”), all owned by SSD.
The lawsuit identifies Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and Wii Play as games which infringe on the patents. The complaint also alleges that Nintendo knew about or was willfully blind to its infringement of SSD’s patents, and continued its sale of the infringing products.
The lawsuit sought damages to compensate SSD for the infringement of the ‘908, ‘758, ‘301 and ‘382 Patents. The suit also sought a permanent injunction enjoining Nintendo and all its affiliates from infringing, inducing others to infringe, and contributing to the infringement of these patents.
CASE TIMELINE
Shinsedai Company, Limited dismissed the litigation against Nintendo on mutually agreeable, confidential terms.
