ITC Sets Dates For Wii Patent Infringement Investigation

The U.S. International Trade Commission has announced it's moving forward with an investigation into allegations that Nintendo's Wii system infringes on patents held by Dublin Ohio-based Motiva. The court, which previously agreed to hear the case last month, is now set to complete its investigation by March 5, 2012, after making an initial determination on the matter by November 4, 2011. Motiva alleges the Wii infringes on two patents Motiva holds on a "human movement measurement system" that uses wireless hand-held or body-worn controllers to track a user's position in three-dimensional space. Motiva is asking the ITC issue a permanent cease-and-desist order preventing Nintendo from importing the Wii into the United States or selling the system in the country. The company previously filed similar patent infringement suits in Federal courts in Texas and Washington state. Nintendo responded to those suits with a request for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to review the validity of Motiva's patent. I June, a judge issued a stay in the federal case pending that review. In September, the ITC agreed to investigate a patent infringement case brought by Taiwan's Chimei Innolux Corp. surrounding certain memory caching techniques used in Sony's PlayStation 3. In April, Nintendo won an appeal of a 2008 decision which ordered them to pay $21 million to Anascape over alleged patent infringement in their Wavebird wireless controller.