Nintendon't! - Video-games giant loses patent infringement case against health tech company

Nintendo has lost a patent infringement case against a medical-device maker and has been ordered to pay $10 million in damages. 

The video-games company was sued in 2013 by healthcare technology company iLife Technologies, over a patent infringement dispute. It was argued that Nintendo used technology created and patented by iLife when creating its Wii Remote.

It was alleged that Nintendo infringed upon six of iLife Technologies’ patents. iLife Technologies’ technology was used to monitor infants to prevent sudden infant death and to help monitor the elderly for falls. Nintendo were said to have used iLife’s technology in its motion-sensing controller for the Nintendo Wii and Wii U.

iLife Technologies originally wanted $144 million in damages or $4 for every Wii and Wii U system sold in the six years before the suit being filed.

Nintendo is planning on appealing the verdict. The company said iLife Technologies’ patent was too broad, improperly written and invalid.

In a statement to Glixel, Nintendo said: “Nintendo disagrees with the decision, as Nintendo does not infringe iLife’s patent and the patent is invalid. Nintendo looks forward to raising those issues with the district court and with the court of appeals."

iLife Technologies previously filed similar patent infringement suits against Fitbit and Under Armour but both cases were dismissed.