Microsoft Sues UK's Datel Over Controllers 109
nathanielinbrazil writes "Microsoft has sued a British manufacturer over the infringement of four of its patents for Xbox game controllers. The suit was filed in Seattle, Washington, and Datel has yet to respond. Datel is a United Kingdom company with a US unit and has produced two specific controllers — the TurboFire and WildFire — that Microsoft wants stopped." The infringing patents are over "portions of a gaming controller" and "portion of a gaming input device having an illuminated region."
Hey, at least it's actually hardware (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ok, really? (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, if the patent is about the way one segment lights up to show which controller it is (and which bit of a splitscreen setup you are), thats something that is really useful and I have not seen in a controller before the 360 one. I wouldn't mind if they had a patent on that (though the Wii does something similar with the 4 blue leds at the bottom of each remote, so maybe not)