Nintendo, maker of the Wii and the Wii U video game consoles, won a U.S. appeals court ruling on Monday. The five-year-old patent lawsuit could've prevented the Japanese company from importing its Wii system into the U.S.
It all started with Motiva LLC, a Dublin, Ohio, company which claimed Nintendo violated its patents on motion controls, allegedly harming a fledgling U.S. industry. It sued Nintendo in 2008. If it won the case, Motiva stood to gain significant leverage to demand royalties from overseas companies. If it lost, Motiva, and other patent-licensing companies like it (sometimes referred to as patent trolls), would lose a significant tool for lawsuits.
To win, Motiva would've needed to prove that it was making a significant investment, from research and development to making deals with manufacturers, to commercialize its held patents.
It didn't.
The court ruled Motiva showed no intention of putting its patents to market, affirming an earlier ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). The ITC also ruled that Nintendo didn't infringe on any patents –– an issue which the circuit court didn't address.
"Motiva was never close to launching a product incorporating the patented technology –– nor did any partners show any interest in doing so, for years before or any time after the launch of the Wii," Circuit Judge Sharon Prost wrote in a three-judge panel ruling. "Moreover, the evidence demonstrated that Motiva's litigation was targeted at financial gains, not at encouraging adoption of Motiva's patented technology."
Nintendo issued a statement expressing its pleasure with the case's outcome, agreeing with the court's ruling that Motiva's actions didn't meet the ITC's domestic industry standard.
"Nintendo has a passionate tradition of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others," Richard Medway, Nintendo of America's deputy general counsel, said in a prepared statement. "We vigorously defend patent lawsuits when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party's patent."
Motiva, however, isn't going to let the ITC and a Federal Circuit ruling get in its way, and will continue to pursue the case in a district court, according to Reuters.
