Nintendo wins Balance Board patent appeal

The United States Court of Appeals has upheld the earlier ruling that said Nintendo’s Wii Balance Board did not violate an IA Labs patent.

The Balance Board is used in Nintendo’s Wii Fit and many other games.

Its most familiar use seemingly brought it into contention with the patent for an "isometric exercise system" computer peripheral, but this and other patent disputes were rejected by a lower court last year.

In addition, the court ruled that IA Labs must pay Nintendo over $236,000 in attorney fees.

Both of these decisions were upheld by the appeals court.

“We are very pleased with the court’s decision,” said Nintendo of America’s deputy general counsel Richard Medway.

“Nintendo has a long history of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others. We also vigorously defend patent lawsuits, like the IA Labs lawsuit, when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party’s patent.”