Nintendo sues Nyko alleging knockoff Nunchuk

Wii maker accuses peripheral company of swiping name, design, and color scheme for its wireless controller accessory.

For years, peripheral-maker Nyko has offered products that complement consoles. Though the makers of said consoles have not always been thrilled with said products--for a time, Microsoft blamed Nyko's Intercooler for Xbox 360 overheating--they have been generally tolerant of said products.

Nintendo's Nunchuk.

That might be changing. Bloomberg is reporting that Nintendo filed suit earlier this week against unlicensed peripheral manufacturer Nyko, alleging that the company's Kama Wireless Nunchuck Controller for the system infringes on the official Wii Nunchuk (note the missing second "c"). Nintendo claims that the design of the Kama controller, right down to the color scheme, the packaging, and the product manual, are close enough to the official Nunchuk controller as to confuse customers about the product's origin.

Nintendo is accusing Nyko of trademark and patent violations, asking for damages and any profits that the peripheral maker earned as a result of infringements.

Nyko's Nunchuck.

"While Nintendo supports the creation of innovative games and products used with our game systems, we cannot allow third parties to infringe on our intellectual property rights," a Nintendo representative told GameSpot.

A Nyko representative had not returned GameSpot's request for comment as of press time.

Source

 Opinion

 Nintendo is in the wrong here. Companies--like Nyko, Logitech, etc--have been making 3rd party controllers for years. Why now does Nintendo sue over it? Personally it seems Nintendo is just being greedy b*st*rds here. Nyko is not doing anything wrong. Nintendo even proves how BS this lawsuit really is when they mention infringement on colour scheme. Since when was all white a colour scheme? Just because they havent released a wireless Nunchuk controller first does not mean Nyko did anything wrong releasing one.

Nintendo is becoming worse then they were in the SNES days.

can you actually sue for "color scheme"? as it, "being white"?

Interesting, Let's welcome the new bully in town

 This entire lawsuit is stupid as Nintendo will lose this one. Nyko's controller has enough differences, both internally and externally, plus has their name on the controller. 

Who needs a wireless nunchuk anyway?

Old.

http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=29485

 so....thiswil probably end up in the news section... might just copy and paste what I have here and not do my typical find every other source in the book and write up my own article on it.

Its obvious Nintendo was going to make a wireless nunchuck too.

oh jeez....and i thought Nintendo stopped being idiots and had enough money not to worry. ITS WHITE IT LOOKS LIKE OURS! god forbid someone wants white with white?

lol they should sue microsoft... and ps1 while they are at it.. oh... wait. Both were there before them.. not to mention the dreamcast.. XD

 I've always wanted to say this. *Ahem*

Old news is old!

Getting back on topic: don't be too sure. While the laws in Washington obviously differ from those of my native California, the last patent infringement case I sat in on came down to whether the similarities between Post-It and another company's products (Roll-It!) were enough to confuse consumers. The argument dissolved into the similarities in the names, and whether Post-It's "canary yellow" coloring was being infringed on.

The point is, the only test in California is whether a consumer is likely to think that the product comes from the patent holder. Nintendo may have a case here, since the two do look markedly similar and most consumers are not (yet) familiar with the video game industry. That said, Nyko's lawyer made an interesting remark about how Nyko did not "knowingly" infringe on Nintendo's patent, which makes me suspect that they're ceding that argument, but are appealing to a Washington rule about mens rea. Considering how easy it currently is to patent troll, I think Nintendo has a better than even shot at winning this one.