Many people (me among them) like to point out some of the innovations to the industry that Nintendo have rolled out across the agesThe first to use a d-pad instead of a huge joystick The first to use a standardised pause button The first to have shoulder buttonsFirst to have rumbleFirst to take that d-pad and make it an analogue thumbstick

First to make a balance-board yoga 'game' (errr....yeah, I'll stop there)But despite the fact that Nintendo made all of these popular, they are often not the original inventors and have had to pay for many licences for them  In the arena of the console controller (one of the most popular fighting grounds), a company called Anascape is currently causing loads of trouble for the big boysThey've claimed patents on a whole range of controller functions, from things like pressure sensitive buttons and analogue sticks, to very confusing sounding inventions like the "Variable Conductance Sensor with Elastomeric Dome Cap"

  Whilst Microsoft has been happy to pay them their due, Nintendo have been taking it to the courts and, mostly, getting their arses handed to themAnd much as Sony like to claim that they didn't include rumble in the PS3 controller due to interference with their motion sensing kit, they are currently facing a ruling that may force them to stop selling any rumble related hardware at allThis includes the PS2.  

There is almost no area of gaming that remains untouched by these patents, as almost any good idea in a game can (and usually will) be patentedFor instance, you know the way that, in almost every 3D game, the camera is attached to the mouse and moves in a sphere around the player character? That's patentedSo next time you run across a game with an infuriatingly bad camera set-up and can't help but rage at the developers, it's usually lack of funds, rather than common sense that led the developers down the path of poor camera management 

 MMORPGs, despite seeming at times to all be slight variations on the exact same theme done and re-done a thousand times, have been relatively free from concerns about patentsThat is, until recentlyA hugely important lawsuit is currently in progress in America concerning Worlds.com and NCSoftNCSoft being the creators of the wonderful MMO City of Heroes (& Villains), and Worlds.com being money grabbing bastards.