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Nintendo loses court case over Wii tech

It was reported over the weekend by PureNintendo.com that Nintendo has lost a court case in the UK to Koninklijke Philips (a Dutch company more commonly known as Philips) over its motion controller technology. Philips claimed that Nintendo infringed on its intellectual property with its designs for the Wii and Wii U’s motion controllers, and a UK court has ruled in Philips’ favour.

It’s a pretty big deal, as Philips will be awarded punitive damages over Nintendo’s use of the tech in its Wii and Wii U game consoles. The judgement will also give Philips a boost in legal battles being fought in France, Germany and the United States over the same thing.

Mama Mia!

The US will be particularly fascinating to follow, as Philips seeks to prevent Nintendo from even selling the consoles in the country should they win in that country.

None of this is good for the gaming company which is already struggling a bit with sales of its latest console, but don’t count them out just yet.

Nintendo has announced that they will be appealing the verdict in the UK, and has said in a statement that “Nintendo is committed to ensuring that this judgement does not affect continued sales of its highly acclaimed line of video game hardware, software and accessories and will actively pursue all such legitimate steps as are necessary to avoid any interruptions to its business”.

Philips said in its own statement on the matter that it had notified Nintendo of the possible patent infringement as early as 2011, and had hoped to settle the matter out of court “…but as that hasn’t worked out we had to take this step.”

Don’t expect Wiis and Wii U consoles to disappear off store shelves any time soon, though – Nintendo may yet find a way to settle with Philips before a halt on Wii and Wii U sales anywhere becomes necessary. We’ll keep you updated as the story unfolds.

[Souce – Purenintendo.com, Image – Nintendo]

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