Microsoft and Nintendo sued over parental controls

Guardian Media Technologies contends that nearly forty companies -- including the likes of Microsoft, Nintendo, Apple, Amazon, Best Buy and even Cisco -- infringed upon their parental control technology, reports Gamepolitics. The lawsuit was filed in California on December 23rd.

Guardian claims that while the two 1990 patents have since expired, the defendants "made, imported, distributed or induced patent violations before they did expire."

Parental control technology granting users the ability to manage objectionable content has been built into game consoles for some time. Both Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii contain such measures -- as does Sony's Playstation 3, although curiously, Sony is not among those named in the suit.

Neither Microsoft nor Nintendo have commented on the filing.

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