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Microsoft Sues UK's Datel Over Controllers

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the you-gotta-be-kidding-me dept.

nathanielinbrazil writes "Microsoft has sued a British manufacturer over the infringement of four of its patents for Xbox game controllers. The suit was filed in Seattle, Washington, and Datel has yet to respond. Datel is a United Kingdom company with a US unit and has produced two specific controllers — the TurboFire and WildFire — that Microsoft wants stopped." The infringing patents are over "portions of a gaming controller" and "portion of a gaming input device having an illuminated region."

2 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Hey, at least it's actually hardware by ShadowRangerRIT · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As long as they limit their suits to infringements on hardware patents, I'm okay with that.

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  2. Re:Ok, really? by RalphSleigh · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually, if the patent is about the way one segment lights up to show which controller it is (and which bit of a splitscreen setup you are), thats something that is really useful and I have not seen in a controller before the 360 one. I wouldn't mind if they had a patent on that (though the Wii does something similar with the 4 blue leds at the bottom of each remote, so maybe not)

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