Nintendo Finally Wins Wii Lawsuit

by

Nintendo has finally won a lawsuit that began 15 years ago against BigBen Interactive (now Nacon). The case, filed in Germany in 2010, claimed that some of BigBen’s Wii controllers copied important technology in Nintendo’s Wii Remote, specifically its design and motion-sensing features. Nintendo held a European patent covering these aspects of the Wii controller, and the court ultimately sided with Nintendo.

Nintendo sued BigBen, claiming the company’s Wiimote copies illegally used Nintendo’s patented technology and stole potential profits from official Nintendo products. BigBen argued that customers would have simply bought similar controllers from another company if theirs weren’t available, meaning Nintendo wouldn’t have necessarily gained those sales. The case had a history of rulings before the latest judgment; in July 2011, a court initially found BigBen guilty of violating Nintendo’s patents, and those findings were consistently confirmed through several appeals.

Nintendo Waited 15 Years for Its Lawsuit Victory

After a 15-year legal battle, Nintendo was awarded approximately $8.2 million (or just under 7 million euros) by a German court on October 30, 2025. This amount includes nearly 3 million euros in interest that built up since 2018, as well as legal fees. The court determined Nintendo lost potential profits because of the infringement, believing they would have sold all of BigBen’s controllers if not for the violation. The court rejected the argument that customers would have simply bought controllers from other companies instead.

Image by Pam K Ferdinand / Game Rant

The court didn’t consider any potential reasons to lessen the blame, even if those reasons involved actions by others that also caused harm. Essentially, the person found to have infringed couldn’t benefit from claiming someone else’s actions should reduce their responsibility. – Bardehle Pagenberg law firm

Nintendo has won a major legal battle, but the case isn’t completely closed yet. BigBen plans to appeal the decision, so the final outcome and any financial implications are still uncertain.

Nintendo is well-known for strongly protecting its inventions and creative works, and often takes legal action when it believes those rights are violated. A recent example of this is the lawsuit they filed in September 2024 against the game developer Pocketpair. Nintendo, along with The Pokémon Company, claims that the popular game Palworld copies many elements from Pokémon, including how players collect creatures, use throwable spheres, and ride or travel with them.

Nintendo is trying to legally force changes to the game Palworld and is seeking around $65,000 in compensation. The game’s developer, Pocketpair, disagrees with Nintendo’s claims, arguing that the features Nintendo objects to are either original or have appeared in other games before. Despite this, Pocketpair has been updating Palworld, making changes like altering how gliding works and temporarily removing the ability to summon creatures using Pal Spheres. The legal battle has faced some setbacks, including a recent ruling in October 2025 where a Japanese patent office rejected Nintendo’s patent, citing similar systems in other games and questioning whether Nintendo’s inventions were truly new.

In September 2025, Nintendo successfully sued Ryan Daly, who ran the now-defunct website moddedhardware.com, for patent infringement in Washington state. Nintendo claimed Daly intentionally sold devices designed to bypass the Switch’s security features and illegally copied and sold their games. Daly represented himself in court, and the case ended with a settlement where he agreed to pay Nintendo $2 million.

Read More

2025-12-18 20:37