US company sues Nintendo in Wii wand patent suit

Posted by james on August 21st 2008 to Business, Games, Legal

More at Wired News

Nintendo’s hit Wii console with its wandlike remote controller has been targeted in patent infringement complaints by a U.S. technology company.

Hillcrest Laboratories, based in Rockville, Md., has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington D.C., and a patent infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Maryland against Nintendo Corp., the company said in a statement Wednesday.

Kyoto-based Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said Thursday the Japanese video game company has not yet received the lawsuit and had no comment.

Hillcrest is accusing Nintendo of infringement in four patents dealing with technology for a handheld three-dimensional pointing device and a display interface system for organizing graphic content on a TV, it said.

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U.S. relay team stripped of 2000 Olympic gold medals

Posted by doris on August 02nd 2008 to Games, Sports

Full Story At CNN.com

BEIJING, China (AP) — The International Olympic Committee has stripped gold medals from the U.S. men’s 1,600-meter relay team that competed at the 2000 Games in the aftermath of Antonio Pettigrew’s admission that he was doping at the time.
Antonio Pettigrew’s doping confession has cost his U.S. relay teammates a gold medal.

Antonio Pettigrew’s doping confession has cost his U.S. relay teammates a gold medal.

The IOC executive board disqualified the entire team, the fourth gold and sixth overall medal stripped from that U.S. track contingent in the past eight months for doping.

Three gold and two bronze were previously removed after Marion Jones confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs.

Saturday’s decision was almost a formality after Pettigrew gave up his gold medal in June. He admitted in court in May that he used EPO and human growth hormone from 1997 to 2003.

Five of Pettigrew’s teammates also lost their medals: Michael Johnson and twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison ran in the final, while Jerome Young and Angelo Taylor featured in the preliminaries.

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Nintendo reports jump in 1Q profit on hit Wii

Posted by james on July 30th 2008 to Business, Games, Technology

Full Story at Wired News

Nintendo Co.’s profit for the fiscal first quarter surged 34 percent as sales of its hit Wii console shot up, underlining the success of the video game unit in attracting novice players.

The Japanese manufacturer of Super Mario and Pokemon video games reported Wednesday a profit of 107.27 billion yen ($996 million) from April through June, up from 80.25 billion yen in the same period last year.

The big factor behind the stellar performance was the Wii and its game software, including the “Wii Fit,” which has drawn the health-conscious to doing simple exercises like yoga and aerobics with a video game.

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