Nintendo’s Wii football accessory patent |
Game console makers apparently entertain every single idea, no matter how silly. The latest patent dreamed up by the big N is a football accessory that holds a Wiimote and nunchuk. The idea is that it could determine throwing angle, power and direction as well as body movements, which are then translated to the game.
It beats an inflatable horse, but do we really need to be breaking more TVs, with fake footballs? It’s just a patent, but you never know. We may see this one down the road. Good idea or not.


If you thought that the already available range of
Patent disputes are so common that many of us just overlook them today. It seems like each week a new dispute is filed between two companies. HP and Cornell University have been fighting it out in court over a patent infringement suit for a while now.
There are all kinds of nifty
Apple has had some success with their unibody MacBooks, so it makes sense that they would start considering the possibility of introducing unibody iPods in the future. That’s what this recently released patent application suggests.
Remember Nintendo’s gaming robot ROB? Well, it looks like Sony has a new patent application for an add-on gaming robot, which will react to both the game and the user.
When you have a popular product all sorts of things, both good and bad, come along with that. You have to deal with copycat products and lawsuits form companies trying to get in on the action. The Nintendo Wii is the most popular game console around and as a result, Nintendo has had to fight several patent infringement suits over the innovative console.
Apple may be looking into a wireless remote wand to power the next generation of Apple TV media systems, offering the cursor on the Apple TV display the kind of accuracy a mouse gives the cursor on a PC. Just like millions of Nintendo Wii owners around the world.
Patents are often looked on with disdain by consumers and other businesses. The problem is that many patents that are approved are for technologies that were already around or not new. This leaves firms that have been producing products similar to a newly issued patent open for suit.
Patents are a huge source of income for many companies, whatever the companies plan to do with the patents. Sometimes patents end up being used exclusively by one company and other times the company will license the patents to other firms for a fee.
It’s a common problem. You have your headphones on and you’re in a crowd, but the music is drowned out by the crowd. Well, check this out. This Apple patent takes a look at dynamic volume adjustment that is based on your surroundings, not your music.
Check out this patent for a PS3 Wiimote device which can be split into two to suit different gaming methods. The technology is similar to Nintendo’s Wiimote, featuring accelerometers, LED-based tracking etc. One of the unique functions of the controller is the ability to send out ultrasonic frequencies that can determine the absolute xyz position. Will we ever see this from Sony? You can bet on it, but likely in an updated form. Everybody is trying to keep up with the Wii while making motion based games uniquely their own.
Ask anybody and they’ll tell you Apple invented the iPod. Not entirely correct according to Apple themselves, who has credited a UK man as author of some of the original patents that outlined how today’s PMPs work. Kane Kramer had no idea about iPods back then, but he sketched out a rudimentary media player in 1979. Sadly, financial difficulties in 1988 meant he couldn’t renew the patent and so it entered the public domain. Apple then used the concept as evidence in their legal case against Burst.com, who were accusing the company of patent infringement and looking for a slice of iProfits.
It’s far from the first time that Apple has filed patents for some kind of tablet computer. It’s been described in the past as a large iPhone, or as a full tablet, but these latest images look like a large mobile internet device that would be pretty neat. Most of the 52-page filing is in regards to the touchpad. 








