Nintendo Faces Patent Suit Over the Wii

An anonymous reader writes "A company named Thinkoptics has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nintendo over the motion controller used with the Wii. Apparently they make a similar product named the Wavit Remote, and they've been granted patents describing its operation. 'And they've chosen the setting most likely to yield a win: the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Texas. Now, that's not to say that Wavit-maker Thinkoptics will get a win, but this particular court circuit tends to favor the patent holder over all else. The patent in question, U.S. Patent Number 7,796,116, is titled "Electronic equipment for handheld vision based absolute pointing system." Thinkoptics' primary argument in the case is that Nintendo had previous knowledge that the Wii would infringe based on the Trademark Office's rejection of certain claims in Nintendo-filed patents.'"

Re:As someone who lives in more or less Eastern Te

[MagikSlinger]

This American Life & Planet Money [thisamericanlife.org] had a good show about this. It is because the East Texas court has a relatively free docket; the other courts are clogged with War on Drugs cases. There are also a lot of home offices for patent troll companies near that court. TAL tried to visit these offices and discovered almost all of them are empty and never used.