Press release

Court Overturns Jury Verdict Against Nintendo’s Wii Remote

Ruling Nullifies Jury Award from 2017

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 21, 2020 – On Jan. 17, a federal court in Dallas ruled that a patent asserted against Nintendo’s Wii Remote was not valid. The court concluded that iLife Technologies Inc. was impermissibly trying to cover the broad concept of using motion sensors to detect motion. The ruling nullifies a $10.1 million jury award against Nintendo from 2017.

The invalidated patent was the last of six patents that iLife Technologies Inc. originally asserted against Nintendo in 2013. The Patent Office found the other five invalid in 2016.

“Nintendo has a long history of developing new and unique products, and we are pleased that, after many years of litigation, the court agreed with Nintendo,” said Ajay Singh, Nintendo of America’s Deputy General Counsel. “We will continue to vigorously defend our products against companies seeking to profit off of technology they did not invent.”

About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Nintendo Switch™ system and the Nintendo 3DS™ family of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 4.7 billion video games and more than 740 million hardware units globally, including Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS™ family of systems, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™, Nintendo GameCube™, Wii™ and Wii U™ systems. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names, such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Zelda and Pokémon. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Americas. For more information about Nintendo, please visit the company’s website at https://www.nintendo.com/.