Nintendo of America will pay $10 million to iLife Technologies, following a patent infringement lawsuit which accused the company of using iLife’s technology to build its motion-detecting Wii Remote.
The technology patented by iLife was originally intended to detect when elderly individuals fell, as well as monitor babies for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
iLife originally sought $144 million in damages – $4 multiplied by 36 million Wii consoles sold – before the suit was filed, with an accompanying injunction preventing Nintendo’s use of the technology.
Around the same time iLife sued Nintendo it filed patent infringement suits against other companies for similar reasons – notably Fitbit and Under Armour. Both of their suits were dismissed and likely settled out of court.
Nintendo’s defence states it did not infringe on the patent, and that the document was improperly written, and therefore deemed invalid.
Sources state Nintendo plans to appeal the recent ruling.
