East Texas

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

A Tyler company has been awarded $21 million for patent infringement and Nintendo has been ordered to pay a percentage of its sales from its Wii and GameCube controllers.

Anascape, LTD., a Tyler computer firm specializing in analog-related technology, filed a lawsuit in 2006 against Nintendo of America, Inc. and Microsoft Corp for patent infringement.

On June 14, 2005, “3D Controller with Vibration” was issued a patent with Brad Armstrong as the inventor and all rights were owned by Anascape, according to the lawsuit.

Anascape claimed Microsoft’s and Nintendo’s infringement of that patent caused monetary damage to the company.

Both Nintendo and Microsoft filed counterclaims to Anascape’s lawsuit.

A federal jury in Lufkin found in May that Nintendo’s Wii classic controller, connected to the Wii remote controller, and Nintendo’s GameCube controller and GameCube Wavebird wireless controller infringed a patent owned by Anascape, according to court documents.

The jury in U.S. District Judge Ron Clark’s court found that Nintendo’s Wii remote controller, connected to the Wii Nunchuk controller, did not infringe on Anascape’s patent.

Anascape reportedly settled with Microsoft out of court before the jury trial.

Because of the jury’s verdict against Nintendo, Clark ordered that Nintendo pay Anascape $21 million in actual damages, as well as more than $2 million in prejudgment interest, for a total of more than $23 million.
The judge also ordered Nintendo employees and executives be restrained from using or selling in the United States its Wii classic controller, GameCube controller and the GameCube Wavebird wireless controller.

But Clark ruled that the injunction be stayed as long as a percent of the selling prices for the controllers sold by Nintendo be deposited into an interest-bearing escrow account until all or part of the amount is released to Anascape.

On a quarterly basis, Nintendo will have to deposit 7 percent of the selling price for each GameCube Wavebird wireless and Wii classic controllers sold and 5 percent of the selling price for each Wii remote sold.