Nintendo will fight $21M appeal denial

July 1st, 2008, 20:51 Posted By: Shrygue

via Computer and Video Games


Nintendo will fight a court's decision to deny the game maker's appeal of a $21 million patent infringement verdict involving game controllers.

After the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Lufkin Division told Nintendo that it must pay millions of dollars to Texas-based Anascape for patent infringement, the famous game company appealed the decision, asking for a reduced verdict.

But on Thursday, judge Ron Clark denied Nintendo's appeal, and upheld the jury's May 14 decision.

However, the fight over the patents isn't over yet, Nintendo has told Next-Gen.

"Nintendo does not agree with the ruling of the trial court on the remittitur motion," said Charlie Scibetta, senior director of public relations at Nintendo of America in an e-mail. "Nintendo intends to appeal this case to the Federal circuit court."

The jury said that Anascape's lawyers presented enough evidence showing that Nintendo had infringed on patents in the production of the GameCube controller, the Wavebird, the Wii Classic controller and the Wii Remote.

In a statement issued Friday, Anascape's lawyers praised this week's ruling. "We appreciate the Court's thoughtful consideration in upholding the jury's decision," said Doug Cawley, principal at McKool Smith and lead counsel for Anascape. "Although not a giant corporation like Nintendo, Anascape has every right to protect its technology."

In 2006, Anascape also filed suit against Microsoft and Sony for alleged patent infringements pertaining to game controllers.

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