A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit brought against Nintendo over patents related to the Wii and GameCube game controllers.
Fenner Investments, a Richardson, Texas-based investment firm, alleged that the game controllers infringed on its patent, U.S. No. 6,297,751. The case was due to begin a trial on Tuesday.
Nintendo said it is pleased with the decision. But the company has been the regular target of patent holders who are trying to collect royalties.
Among those who have sued are Interlink Electronics and Anascape. In the Anascape case, a Texas jury ruled against Nintendo and ordered the company to pay $21 million. With so much inventing going on around next-generation controllers, creating a new game system is becoming a legally risky affair.
Fenner itself has also sued Microsoft and Sony. Fenner has been accused of being a “patent troll” — a law firm that buys patents on the cheap and then tries to extract royalties from lots of companies. It has sued firms such as Alcatel, Cisco and Nokia over patent disputes as well.