Nintendo Is Getting Investigated For Patent Infringement

Nintendo is being sued again in the U.S. for possible patent infringement over its Switch portable console.

Nintendo was the target of a lawsuit coming from mobile gaming peripheral firm Gamevice in 2017. Gamevice asserts that the Nintendo Switch console infringes on its patents for its controllers due to the removable nature of the Switch’s joy cons. The company had developed extra accessories for mobile gaming that could be installed to devices in order to provide them the functionality of a game controller. In a statement written by the USITC on May 1:

The complaint alleges violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 in the importation into the United States and sale of certain portable gaming console systems with attachable handheld controllers and components thereof that infringe patents asserted by the complainant.

Even though Gamevice’s first suit did not appear to get any traction, another complaint was filed to the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) on March 30, which then resulted in the USITC opening an investigation against Nintendo on May 1. The results of this USITC verdict is, nevertheless, months away.