In this day and age it is becoming more common for motion controlled video gaming to be adapted in our everyday lives. One company, Ultimate Pointer, is bent on taking down the godfather of motion control video games, Nintendo. A new lawsuit has formed over the design of the Wii Remote and its likeness to Ultimate Pointer’s Upoint laser-pointer presentation remote.
Not only has Ultimate Pointer sued Nintendo, but they are also suing other retail outlets, including Sears, Best Buy, and Game Stop. The company claims these stores have not been “authorized” to sell the Wii Remotes due to their patent that Nintendo has infringed upon.
A laser pointer and presentation system may sound largely different from what we all know as the Wii Remote and what it’s capable of, but in a court filing it explains that Ultimate Pointer owns the rights to the patent entitled:
“Easily Deployable Interactive Direct-Pointing System and Presentation Control System and Calibration Method.”
Does that sound like the Wii Remote to you?
The Upoint laser-pointer presentation remote isn’t even available to purchase yet. The Ultimate Pointer’s website claims they had conceptualized this technology in 2003, which is three years prior to the Wii’s release, but if the patent was coined before the Wii Remote and the legal jargon backs up Ultimate Pointer’s lawsuit, then it looks like Nintendo may be caught in a sticky situation.
This is not the first company to sue Nintendo over Wii technology as well.
Ultimate Pointer’s specific argument against Nintendo Japan and Nintendo America is that they have, ”directly infringed the patent with the unauthorized selling of its Wii Remote hardware.”
Check out the “How It Works” video from the Upoint website below:
So how much do you think Ultimate Pointer’s Upoint laser-pointer presentation remote stacks up to the Nintendo Wii Remote? The design is slightly similar, but exactly how close are the courts going to be looking at the functionality of both remotes? We’ll keep you posted.
Source: Gamastura
You can follow me on the Twitter @TyRawrrnosaurus
Around the web:
‘Black Ops 2′ Doesn’t Need New Engine, Says Treyarch 
MW2 Map Terminal Shows Up In ‘Modern Warfare 3′ Patch Files 
‘Halo 4′ Box Art Revealed 
Sony Shares Plummet To 32-Year Low 
Loading ...
This reminds me of the time when the Wright brothers sued that one guy in North Carolina for flying a kite….oh, wait, that never happened. People were more civil then and enjoyed sharing in the experience of invention. Just because something is simular, doesn’t mean its the same. I’m thankful Henry Ford, but even more thankful for the other thousand car designers.
This is starting to piss me off. These companies just want to sink Nintendo even more. This is a bit similar to the wii remote but honestly, the wii is for gaming not for presentations on Powerpoint. It’s just like the Smartboard but with a remote and why Nintendo? Sony has the Playstation Move which is similar also like the Wiimote. Get a life people besides sueing people! If this was being planned to be made in 2003, why wasn’t it released before the Wii in 2005? I think THEY copied the Wiimote’s technology and try to sue them so they could cover it all up. Nintendo has to stand up for themselves.
This is stupid.
Sony ripped off the Nintendo Wii remote and Nintendo didn’t sue them…
This is just some sad business boy’s idea of making money because HIS product doesn’t sell.
And if they can patent something like that, the I’ll be patenting a time-machine, so that one day, when people can travel through time, I can sue of them for stealing my design…
Sony didn’t rip off the Wii remote. (they did however see how popular motion control gaming was and thus created the Playstation Move to cash in on it.) Sony created a new way to do essentially the same thing as Nintendo (Microsoft did the same thing with K’nect). The Nintendo doesn’t use a camera or a glowing ball on the end of the remote to track it’s movement, Sony does. Although the end result is the same (controlling characters on screen with motions), the technology used to achieve that result is different. Nintendo couldn’t sue Sony and expect to win because they’re weren’t any patent infringements (so far as we know anyway). If the Upoint tech is similar enough to the Wii and they’re patent was filed before Nintendo filed their own, they have a legitimate case. I personally think it’s nothing more than a money grab on Upoint’s part, but that seems to be the American way these days. Don’t work hard for something, just sue for it. The fact that they still have not released this product, eight years after they “conceptualized” it, to me, is very telling. It says they couldn’t make it work so they opened up a Wiimote to see how to get it right.
Ok….so 8 years in the making and this simple presentation tool still isn’t done? Yeah right. if anyone doesn’t see that as fishy idk what the world has come to.
Wow what a LOAD OF CRAP. Their company is going under so in a last ditch effort they go after a company that had a product that looks similar to theirs. And if they were so intent on suing they should have done it as soon as they found out about the wii and not wait this damn long…And besides has anyone ever REALLY heard of their product until recently….?
I really feel this is a load of crap… theyre doing this for attention, they wont get a dime out of the big n
Can we all go back to reading books and eating grapes off ice? I would like that please.
people need to stop compairing things so much…i dont remember so well but how did Duck hunt work???
or that all wireless remotes who came up with the first one
when is the case going to happen?
I dislike nintendo, but I greatly dislike people who are looking to cheat someone else!!
A patent should only be validated if you are the first to design and cone up with something.
And I think lawsuits like these should not be avle to happen unless the two products are doing the same thing!