Nintendo has been known to be draconian at times with protecting its IPs, a position that earned it the ire of content creators after it attempted to control and monetize how Nintendo content was represented. But sometimes it’s other companies that contest the validity of Nintendo’s IP.

One such case happened between Nintendo and Wall Wireless LLC. Wall Wireless insisting that the Nintendo DS and DSi infringed on one of its patents. The patent in question was US Patent no. 6,640,086 which is described as: “Method and apparatus for creating and distributing real-time interactive media content through wireless communication networks and the internet,” which sounds like it could be used to describe just about any online gaming service you care to imagine.

Nintendo obviously agreed, as they’ve been locked in a legal contest on the matter for nearly five years - a contest which only ended yesterday. On May 19, the U.S. District Court in Texas dismissed the case; a conclusion they reached as the U.S. States Patent and Trademark Office cancelled all the patent claims Wall Wireless was using to back up its case. Nintendo walked out victorious, and Nintendo of America’s Vice President and Deputy General Counsel had the following to say on the matter:

“We are very pleased to see the U.S. case dismissed, and also to have the Japanese Patent Office confirm that Nintendo does not infringe Wall’s Japanese patents […] Nintendo vigorously defends patent lawsuits and other proceedings when we believe we have not infringed another party’s patents. It does not matter where such cases are filed or if it takes more than five years to vindicate our position. Nintendo continues to develop unique and innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others.”

This is far from the last patent case Nintendo will have to contest, however. Last week, Phillips issued their own claim on the gaming giant, demanding a sales ban on the Wii and Wii U.

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Shehzaan Abdulla

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Shehzaan grew up playing SEGA consoles and has a soft spot for retro games seeing as he was playing the Master System his parents bought him when all his friends had Playstations (this was also around the same time he realized he was probably adopted).

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