Nintendo fined $21 million
Thursday, 15 May 2008 11:00
Nintendo were ruled to have infringed copyright on a number of GameCube controllers
Nintendo of America has been fined $21 million (£10 million) for infringing on the patent rights of a small, east Texas gaming company.
A federal jury ruled in favour of Anascape Ltd, who had filed a patent regarding motion-sensing technology in gamepads.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2006 and a Nintendo spokesperson has said the company is confident the court will reduce the financial penalty "significantly" after the inevitable appeal.
The jury found Nintendo had infringed the patent when designing the Wii Classic, WaveBird and GameCube controllers, though no infringement was found with the motion-sensing technology used in its Wii and Nunchuck controllers.
Anascape also sued Microsoft for patent infringements on game controllers, but an out-of-court settlement was reached before the start of the Nintendo trial.
No information is available in the public domain about the terms of that deal.