Daniel Lawton

A small local company's daring effort to loosen Nintendo of America's chokehold on the video game industry received at least a temporary setback this week when a federal court ruled that retailers can be held liable if they carry products that infringe on Nintendo patents. Color Dreams says it has developed a legal way of circumventing Nintendo's patents and is marketing seven video games that work on the highly popular Nintendo system but are not licensed by the Japanese company.

A small local company's daring effort to loosen Nintendo of America's chokehold on the video game industry received at least a temporary setback this week when a federal court ruled that retailers can be held liable if they carry products that infringe on Nintendo patents. Color Dreams says it has developed a legal way of circumventing Nintendo's patents and is marketing seven video games that work on the highly popular Nintendo system but are not licensed by the Japanese company.