The Gamevice saga continues. Not content with losing in their infringement case last month, Gamevice dredged their patent claims against Nintendo up again, in hopes of actually winning this time around. After filing with the United States International Trade Commission, the USITC will be moving forward by investigating the claims made by Gamevice that Nintendo is infringing upon their patent of a tablet system with detachable controllers. Previously, the Patent Trial and Appeal board threw out Gamevice's case after investigation, but this latest announcement means that while the merit of the case itself hasn't been determined, a judge will still be assigned to investigate the validity of the claims, even though the US Patent and Trademark Office already ruled that devices that attach video game controllers to tablets is "unpatentable".
By instituting this investigation (337-TA-1197), the USITC has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case. The USITC’s Chief Administrative Law Judge will assign the case to one of the USITC’s administrative law judges (ALJ), who will schedule and hold an evidentiary hearing. The ALJ will make an initial determination as to whether there is a violation of section 337; that initial determination is subject to review by the Commission.