Kotaku
Game controllers seem to be lawsuit magnets. First Immersion sues Microsoft and Sony for the use of patented rumble technology, and now a company called Fenner Investments from Texas claims that the aforementioned plus Nintendo have willfully infringed on their controller related patent. The company does indeed hold a patent on a low voltage joystick port similar to what you'd find on the GameCube, Xbox, and PS2, so it should be interesting to see how this all plays out for the big three.
So how does an investment company end up with the patent on such a prolific device? It's most likely a case of patent trolling, where companies actively search for something widely used and unpatented, then sue the people who are using it once the patent goes through. The patent in question was filed in 1998 and awarded in 2001, and I am pretty sure such ports were in use before then.
Steve Bryant at Google Watch did some digging and discovered that Fenner Investments had also sued various cell phone companies over a patent they hold on "a method and apparatus for managing a communications network for mobile users." Yep, low-life patent trolls.
Off Topic: Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo Sued over Joystick Design [Google Watch via Slashdot]
