Nintendo Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360, Who Controls the Patents?

Will Texas based Fenner Investments get a fat paycheck from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony? The firm claims to hold a patent number 6,297,751 for the "Low Voltage Joystick Port Interface". The LVJPI is a 5 volt port that connects a joystick to a computer. Fenner's lawsuit claims the three games consoles violate its patent and are therefore demanding compensation.

 

Fenner's lawsuit is now sitting before the Courts of the Eastern District of Texas. But the claim could be in serious jeopardy before it even gets rolling. According to records the design was actually developed by Lucent Technologies in 1998. Unless Fenner has obtained the patent from Lucent (now called Alcatel-Lucent) there would seem to be no basis.

 

Is this just another case like NTP suing RIM for its patent?

 

Buy an Xbox360 right now

1 comments
Posted by joseph v on January 23,2007 at 4:26 PM
i think that the xbox 360 has been killing the gaming experince from the start. People say that ps3 is better but the fact of the matter is that xbox 360 came out before ps3, sony was then able to put new features into the system. The thing is that xbox will then in a year or two will come out with something better than the ps3 and then playstation will do the same, but the xbox will always come on top. Wii cant compare with the sony and xbox because they are to behind  so what they came out with a moveable joystick its the games and graphics that count and wii dosent have it