Hillcrest Labs has submitted a patent-infringement complaint against Nintendo and its popular Wii game system with the U.S. International Trade Commission, and said it has filed a separate patent-infringement suit against Nintendo in the U.S. District Court in Maryland.
“While Hillcrest Labs has a great deal of respect for Nintendo and the Wii, Hillcrest Labs believes that Nintendo is in clear violation of its patents and has taken this action to protect its intellectual property rights,” the company said.
Three of the Hillcrest patents at issue pertain to a handheld three-dimensional pointing device, while the fourth covers a navigation interface display system that graphically organizes content for display on a television. Company spokesman Jeremy Pemble said that Hillcrest’s legal actions include requests for damages as well as an injunction that would block Japan-based Nintendo from importing its Wii gaming console and Wii remote into the United States.
Nintendo told media outlets Thursday that it had no comment because the Wii console maker had not yet received the new complaints.
Motion Translation
Hillcrest Labs announced it would be licensing its patented Freespace motion-control technology in November 2006. By making Freespace available independently, “we’re able to serve a wider audience of customers and partners, enabling them to deliver uniquely interactive experiences with a wide range of CE devices,” said CEO Dan Simpkins at the time.
Freespace’s patented DSP algorithms rely on gravity and other inertial input to determine their position in the air and then translate motion instantaneously and even compensate automatically for natural hand tremors, Hillcrest noted. Moreover, Freespace-enabled devices will work regardless of directional orientation, which means users are free to hold the device in whatever position feels most comfortable to them.
Consumers simply point and click to navigate content and application choices on any digital media devices into which the technology…