Nintendo has won a patent suit filed against eight of its handheld consoles, including the 3DS, DSi and Game Boy Advance.

Loading

The suit was filed by the Quintal Research Group after it secured a parent for a "computerized information retrieval system" back in 2008. The crucial bit of the patent focused on the device "having a generally rectangular shape with a display screen on one side that has a frame with an ergonomic placement of finger controls including a pair of thumb controls on the top of the display with at least one of the finger controls being a cursor or pointer control."Though Quintal swiftly informed Nintendo about the patent at the start of 2009 and offered the Japanese giant a license four times, Nintendo refused to continue discussions in July of the same year.Quintal filed the suit in February 2013 and sought damages, costs and other relief if deemed appropriate by the court. It has now been decided by federal court in Oakland, California that Nintendo did not breach any of Quintal's patents.“We are very pleased to have this case dismissed,” said Devon Pritchard, Nintendo of America’s General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Business Affairs. “The result in this case continues to prove that Nintendo will vigorously defend its innovations against patent lawsuits and will not pay to settle cases simply to avoid litigation. Nintendo continues to support patent reform efforts that reduce the unnecessary and inefficient burden cases like this one place on technology companies in the United States.”Nintendo is, unfortunately, a target for many cases like this. Though it regularly manages to win the cases , there's the odd loss too. In early 2014 it was decided Nintendo must forfeit a percentage of 3DS sales to Tomita Technologies due to a lawsuit regarding the 3D stereoscopic display technology, and late last year the company settled with Philips in the UK over more patent issues.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter