The official term for the Nintendo Wii controller is the Wii Remote, so of course Nintendo would like to trademark it. Problem: the U.S. Patent Office recently denied Nintendo's application.
The apparent problem: if the Patent Office allowed Nintendo to trademark "Wii Remote", it would give the impression that they own the term "remote", which is too general for anyone to own. A letter sent from the Patent Office to Nintendo on November 26th specifies the patent could only be granted if Nintendo specifically disclaimed any ownership of the word "remote" every time they used the trademark.
So how's all this legal junk relevant to gamers? Consider this: if Nintendo can't trademark the term "Wii Remote", then any third party who could successfully reverse engineer a clone of the controller could legally market it as a "Wii Remote". Given the sheer quantity of ridiculous peripherals Wii owners are already willing to buy, and the expense of Nintendo's own official remotes, there's probably a lot of money to made here at NIntendo's expense.
