Nintendo Wins Patent Case Brought against Mii Characters

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Judge Finds Patent Claim Invalid

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Nintendo has prevailed in a patent case in Seattle federal court concerning the company’s Mii characters. Judge Richard A. Jones found that U.S. Patent No. 8,005,303, which relates to ways of storing police sketch-artist data, was invalid. RecogniCorp LLC, a patent-assertion company, filed this case in 2011, claiming that the Mii characters used on Nintendo’s systems, including Wii U, Wii and Nintendo 3DS, infringed the patent.

Judge Jones held that the patent was an improper attempt to monopolize mathematical operations, which cannot be patented. The Judge therefore did not need to rule directly on Nintendo’s non-infringement arguments.

“We are very pleased with Judge Jones’ decision, which finally put an end to RecogniCorp’s attempt to cover inventions to which it has no rights,” said Ajay Singh, Nintendo of America’s Director of Litigation and Compliance. “Nintendo will continue to protect its products and innovations against accusations of patent infringement.”

Source : Nintendo Press release