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Creative Kingdoms Aims Wand at Nintendo

Creative Kingdoms, makers of the MagiQuest live-action role-playing game, has filed a complaint at the International Trade Commission (ITC) against Nintendo Co., Ltd. and Nintendo of America, Inc., asking the ITC to prevent Nintendo from importing its Wii gaming system and controller.

According to the complaint, Creative Kingdoms operates a 20,000 square-foot attraction in Myrtle Beach, SC. At this attraction, players pay admission and can buy interactive magic wands to play various games. Marketing literature for MagiQuest bills it as the world?s largest live-action RPG, saying that the wands can trigger 200 effects at the facility, and can remember player progress.

Creative Kingdoms accuses Nintendo?s Wii of infringing U.S. Patent Nos. 7,500,917 (?Magical Wand and Interactive Play Experience?), 6,761,637 (?Method of Game Play Using RFID Tracking Device?), 7,850,527(?Magic-themed Adventure Game?) and 7,896,742(?Apparatus and Methods for Providing Interactive Entertainment?). The complaint accuses the Wii console and remote of infringing various claims in these patents. A sample claim is reproduced below from the ?742 Patent:

1. A toy wand for use in an interactive play environment, the toy wand
comprising: an elongated body having a substantially tubular shape and distal
and proximal ends, said elongated body substantially enclosing an internal
cavity positioned along an axis extending through said distal and proximal ends;
a first tilt sensor and a second tilt sensor disposed within said internal
cavity of said elongated body, said first and second tilt sensors being arranged
in substantially opposing orientations such that at least one of said first and
second tilt sensors is in an inactive state whenever said elongated body is in a
substantially static position and such that a first particular motion of said
elongated body causes or enables each of said first and second tilt sensors to
be in an active state at least momentarily during a duration of said first
particular motion; a memory configured to store a unique identification
associated with the toy wand; and a wireless transmitter electrically coupled to
said first and second tilt sensors and to said memory and located within said
elongated housing, said wireless transmitter being configured to transmit a
first wireless signal in response to said first motion of said elongated body to
one or more reader devices disposed within an interactive play environment to
activate one or more play effects, said first wireless signal further comprising
data indicative of said unique identification.

Next up will be the ITC?s decision on whether to formally institute an investigation. For those unfamiliar with the ITC, take a look here for a summary.

We?ll keep you posted, and thanks for reading.

Full post as published by Patent Arcade on March 22, 2011 (boomark / email).