Our broken patent system has to be the biggest way for lawyers to make money these days. I wonder why our nation is in the terrible shape its in.
Here's an idea: Make patents very specific, enough to protect the inventor. Our overgeneralized patents just open the door to these ridiculous cash-cow lawsuits. And if you just hold a patent and aren't actually using it, you should lose it.

Im going to patent an idea i had. You have a car like thing, and then it has a motor thingy that makes it fly, and ill call it a flying car.

I am going to patient a object call
"a device that is used by human hand" and you all have to pay me!
:D
I will sue you to the last caveman on planet earth!

Seriously, I hope karma comes back to these companies... it's really frustrating to me that these companies are bogging down our court system with these LAME cases.

Xbox 360 and PS3 have such devices too. Shouldn't they be sued too? Roflmao at the generality.

remote control with analog buttons? that's ridiculous. people will do anything for money. even creating ridiculously broad patents and sueing dozens of big companies for money

Anascape's patent is for remote controls that vibrate, not remote controls in general. They filed the patent back in 2000. Sony is probably licensing the technology for use in their controllers, which is why they aren't named in the lawsuit. Nintendo is guilty...

Yeah. Patent law can be a complicated thing sometimes. Remote controlers with analog buttons have been around for a long time. What new and innovative idea does this company have that is non obvious from what other companies have done in the past? On the other hand if a patent protection is not broad, very few people would have incentive to patent ideas. It will really depend on what has been done in the past (prior art) and what sort of improvement Anascape has done. If it is a simple and obvious improvement, the patent will be overturned. But if it is a significant one, then it will have some staying power in the courts.

The patent that Anascape has looks nothing like the Wii controller! I can see the lawsuit if the controllers looked like one another, but they don't!! Check it out!

http://www.google.com/patents?id=OLIVAAAAEBAJ&dq=Anascape

I have a Nintendo Gamecube and the remote (not wireless) controller vibrates under certain circumstances. This has been around for quite awhile.