Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo Sued at the Same Time

Looks like the research departments over at Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony should have been more careful and should have looked into existing patents, and this way they could have avoided one lawsuit or two. The three major players on the gaming consoles market are now facing another lawsuit, filed by Richardson, Texas based Fenner Investments.

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo could pay some retributions for infringing on the company's patent number 6,297,751 for a "low-voltage joystick port interface", as Gamasutra reports. This patent was filed in 1998 and awarded in 2001. Its technical specifications go something like this: "The joystick port interface according the present invention is a low power port which interfaces a typical 5 Volt joystick peripheral device with a lower power computer port. The low-voltage joystick port interface includes a bidirectional buffer circuit and a pulse generator which, together, generate a digital pulse signal, representing a joystick coordinate position, based on an input analog measurement signal".

Fenner Investments seeks damages and an injunction against Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, because Fenner claims that each company has willfully infringed their patent. The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. All of the console manufacturers have been sued before, so they are used to paying exorbitant legal fees. Just a few weeks ago, a lawsuit was filed, claiming an injunction over Nintendo Wiimotes, because the Wii straps were "defective". I'm curious to see how this whole deal will turn out. Will they settle it out of court?