Nintendo's Wii sees patent infringement claims

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (ADR) (OTC: NTDOY)'s Wii game console continuet to burn up the sales charts, selling hundreds of thousands every month. In fact, the lower-priced and graphically-inferior Wii has blown through almost every sales expectation since its release nearly two years ago. Last month, the Wii was responsible for 49% of all game consoles, and it's sold nearly 30 million since its November 2006 launch. Wow.

But, with success comes a large target on the back. Nintendo has been named in a patent lawsuit claiming the Japanese gaming company. Hillcrest Technologies says that Nintendo has violated various patents it holds dealing with the wireless, dimension-aware gaming controller that ships with every Wii console.

The "Wiimote," as it has been dubbed, uses gyroscopes, Bluetooth wireless technology, and is incredibly simplistic on the surface (there are a minimum of buttons, unlike the competition). But inside the Wiimote, the technology making it possible to swing it like a tennis racket is quite complex. Hillcrest's claim rests primarily on wireless technology it invented to allow the physical motion of a controller to select items on a viewing monitor. Hillcrest has already licensed its technology to several gaming companies, but the question remains: why did it take almost two years to bring the lawsuit against Nintendo? Something smells here.