[ATsch]

Especially trademark violations are very effective for this. For example the original GameBoy used it as DRM. The cartridge had to contain a Nintendo(R) logo which was displayed on boot to work, a legal deterrent for publishing unlicensed games that still works to this day.

[sanqui]

Except that the use of copyrighted and trademarked data for means of enabling interoperability has been ruled fair use in the Sega v. Accolade[1] case. So I believe Nintendo's use of the logo in this way is not much more than snake oil.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade

[timClicks]

Gentle reminder that the USA isn't the only jurisdiction. In countries without fair use, for example, this wouldn't even be able to be applied.

[telotortium]

That case was decided after the initial release of the Game Boy, so it wasn't an unreasonable thing to try at the time.

[taneq]

The TrackIR API does something similar to lock out unauthorised third party client applications.