Jury orders Nintendo to pay $21 million for patent infringement

A jury in Texas has ruled that Nintendo must pay $21 million to small company Anascape because certain Nintendo game controllers infringe Anascape patents.

In 2006, Anascape filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and Nintendo alleging that some of these companies’ game controllers infringed Anascape’s patents. Microsoft settled the case for an undisclosed amount, but Nintendo found that there was no patent infringement and filed a lawsuit. The jury judged that Nintendo’s Wii Classic, Wavebird and Gamecube controllers did infringe Anascape’s patents and ordered Nintendo to pay $21 million in damages.

A Nintendo spokesman said his company will appeal the amount of the damages and expects it to be significantly lower.