Nintendo just keeps getting tapped with patent troubles, with its highly successful Wii now the target of a patent lawsuit from Hillcrest Labs.

Hillcrest claims that its patent for “a handheld three-dimensional pointing device” and a vague description of a “navigation interface display system that graphically organizes content for display on a television” apparently predates Nintendo’s Wiimote.

On Wednesday, Maryland-based Hillcrest Labs announced that it has filed a patent infringement with the U.S. International Trade Commission, as well as another patent infringement suit in a U.S. District Court in Maryland regarding Nintendo’s Wiimote.

Hillcrest Labs does have a product based on this technology, called The Loop remote (pictured above), based on what the company calls “Freespace” motion control technology. It seems clear that The Loop remote is much different from the Wiimote, and its hard to believe that something so vague as “a 3D pointing device” could actually best Nintendo in a court of law. Read more…

After a conversation with our own Dan Landis, who reported just a few minutes ago that Marky Mark Walberg injured himself while playing with his Wii, I simply had to take the opportunity to “wii-examine” the statement Mark made not even two weeks ago.

A reporter for People Magazine asked the underwear model, turned rapper, turned actor, if he had played the Max Payne video game, to which he responded:

“I got more responsibility now than I’ve ever had with the kids and everything else. I don’t want to be spending 14 hours on the videogame and then eight hours on the set. It’s not going to work out.”

So, he doesn’t have time to play a video game that may also constitute as research for a role he is about to undertake, but he has the time to play with the Nintendo Wii. If ever you needed proof that the Wii is not considered a real gaming system by some of the people who own it, this may be it.

I personally have nothing against the Wii, but after reporting on a NYC Fitness center charging $110 an hour to play Wii Fit, and now an actor who claims he can’t play video games because of his addictive personality hurting his wrist in a Wii Remote accident, it’s clear to me that the Wii is a phenomenon — one that will likely continue with or without the support of the hardcore gamer.

This man has a hold on you.

Merry Christmas, Nintendo! For the second year in a row, the Nintendo Wii is one of the must-have holiday items. And although I’m completely aware of the console’s success, I was still pleasantly surprised to see just how well the company was doing on Amazon. Read more…