Nintendo and Philips have signed a global patent licensing agreement which ends the dispute over its motion-tracking technology. According to a statement released today, both parties have agreed to cross license portions of each company’s patent portfolio, which terminates any further proceedings over the Wii technology and Wii remote.
Earlier this year, Nintendo UK lost a court case against Philips over the disputed motion-tracking technology, though Nintendo’s UK division soon countered by launching an appeal against the patent ruling. It was one of four cases launched against Nintendo by Philips in a bid to retain their intellectual property rights and gain financial compensation by removing both the Wii and Wii U from the market.
Fortunately, Nintendo and Philips have both come to an agreement, but the specific details – including financial details of the case – will not be disclosed. A statement following court proceedings from Nintendo of Europe can be found below.
Nintendo today announced that it has entered into a global patent license agreement with Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG, AEX: PHIA). As part of the agreement, Nintendo and Philips will cross license portions of each company’s patent portfolio. This agreement ends patent invalidity proceedings brought against Philips by Nintendo in multiple countries, as well as patent infringement proceedings brought by Philips against Nintendo.
“We are pleased to have reached agreement with Philips, as it demonstrates that both companies recognize the importance of intellectual property rights,” said Martina Franke, European General Counsel of Nintendo of Europe. “Nintendo has a substantial IP portfolio and a long history of developing innovative products while respecting valid intellectual property rights of others.”
Financial details and other terms of the license agreement will not be disclosed.
It was a foolish case to begin with.
Gandalf’s response: FOOL OF A TOOK!
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It’s because Philips realised that their claim was utter bullsh*t, so they agreed to whatever agreement they settled on to eliminate hate towards them for this as it could slow down business considerably on Philips products…
Considering they’ve been successful with a case earlier this year, maybe it wasn’t utter bullshit after all.
It might also very well be that Nintendo paid Philips to close the case because maybe there was a possibility of them winning again, resulting in the WiiU having to leave the market, which would cause Nintendo to lose tremendous amounts of money. Or maybe it really was Philips wanting to close the case. We don’t know what happened. Speculations won’t help. But there seems to be a reason why they’re not making details public.
Oh, that was me, btw. I was logged out on my phone for some reason, it seems.
Or, dare I say, (*GULP*) CDi 2 confirmed………..O_O
Please let it be confirmed! I was just thinking this! The Phillips CDi U!
The Phillips CDi U has now been confirmed! Link: The Faces of Evil 2 and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon 2 will be the launch titles.
Philips CDU…XD
it was not bulshit. philips had technology earlier, thats why they won court. but nintendo just talked with them and probably there will be this kinda thing where philips will get a portion of money from each wii mote and wii and wiiu sold and blah blah.
Yet Sony can get away with it because…..
Because they’re a joke when it comes to ripping off Nintendo themselves.
90% sure Nintendo have been screwed over here. At least they did us all the mercy of not disclosing the settlement.
Nintendo used Philips to get back at Sony back in the day. Come on Nintendo, read contracts and agreements before signing them.
How so when the partnership deal with Philips went nowhere either?
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Disgusting, but better than our empire potentially losing…
Of course UK would make Nintendo the guilty ones because they hate them.
But seriously, since when Philips ever made motion sense technology? I heard of primitive 3D and virtual reality but never motion.
I guess they settled it in smash
Is there anything wrong with motion tracking technology….? Just asking.
this is so stupid. until they make a console themself they can’t talk shit. and they don’t attack other company’s who use motion tracking.
cough couch playstation move cough cough
Wait, does this mean Wii Remotes will no longer be made?!
just Wii and not Wii U?
Philips only wishes that they created the motion control technology of the Wii remotes. They should have went out of business when they made the CD-i.
This agreement was reached either because Nintendo was going to win & Phillips decided they’d better get some money than no money at all so they settled or because Phillips was going to win & Nintendo figured they’d be better off losing some money than millions because they have to pull every single Wii U on the market. Or they were both equal & didn’t want to spend years in a battle, thus spending millions of dollars on the case.
In any case, this entire thing was crap since Phillips wasn’t doing a god damn thing with the motion control if they did have some kind of technology. I HATE the idea of people patenting stuff like technology & never once using it for anything because they want to keep others from using it. Like power companies patenting technology that allows the use of solar energy that would be more cheap than electricity because they want to keep their pockets full while letting the rest of the world suffer & leading to an energy crisis all because they care more about money than people.
Did it need to exist in the first place?