Nintendo’s Wii legal troubles mounted Wednesday as Hillcrest Labs...

in Maryland. The Rockville, Md., technology company claimed Nintendo violated four pieces of Hillcrest’s intellectual property: U.S. Patent Nos. 7,158,118, 7,262,760, and 7,414,611 relating to a handheld 3D pointing device, and U.S. Patent No. 7,139,983 relating to a navigation interface display system that graphically organizes content for display on a TV. Since 2001, Hillcrest has offered technology that would allow consumers to interact with digital media on TVs using motion-control and pointing techniques, it said, saying it holds 29 patents in this area worldwide and has filed for more than 100 related patents. CE companies, not all publicly disclosed, have licensed Hillcrest’s technology for use in their products. Hillcrest said it “has a great deal of respect for Nintendo and the Wii,” but said it believes “Nintendo is in clear violation of its patents and has taken this action to protect its intellectual property rights.” Comment wasn’t immediately available from Nintendo of America. Nintendo was found to have infringed Anascape patents for vibration technology (CED May 16 p7). Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Ron Clark in Lufkin, Texas, put on hold an injunction covering Wii Classic Controllers, the GameCube controller and the GameCube Wavebird wireless controller in that case after Nintendo promised to appeal to the Federal Circuit (CED July 25 p4).