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Sony faces $90.7m patent damages

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4387045.stm

Monday, 28 March, 2005, 07:24 GMT 08:24 UK

Sony faces $90.7m patent damages

The case concerns Playstation controllers

Sony has been told to pay $90.7m (£48m) in damages and stop selling PlayStation consoles in the United States after losing a patent infringement lawsuit.

Sony said it would appeal the decision, stemming from a 2002 case brought by US firm Immersion, and would continue to sell its products pending the hearing.

A California court found that Sony had infringed sensory technology developed by the small tech business. This allows a controller to vibrate in time with the game's actions.

Appeal

A federal district court in Oakland upheld a decision by a US court last year which ordered Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony's gaming unit, to pay $82m in damages. However, the order to suspend sales of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles - the best selling games platforms in the world- and more than 40 individual games does not hold while an appeal is being heard. Immersion Corporation claimed that Sony's Dual Shock controller for its two PlayStation consoles violated its patent rights, a claim which Sony has denied. The $90m award is more than three times Immersion's total revenues last year, which amounted to $23.8m. The California based company develops and licenses digital technology.

Computer games are vital to Sony as profits from its consumer electronics business continue to slide. The Japanese company's shares closed down 0.91% at 4,360 yen on Monday.

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And still people think patents are a good thing... but then again it is goliath vs super goliath in this case...

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what i don't get is how selling the "wrong" controller ends up in a court order to stop selling the console? weird laws, america!

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how does a patent infringement on a controller for a console make the whole console illegal?

It doesn't, but all PS2 consoles currently on sale come with one of the offending controllers.

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what i don't get is how selling the "wrong" controller ends up in a court order to stop selling the console? weird laws, america!

What do weird American laws have to do with this? When you buy a Playstation 2 in a retail box, it comes automatically with a controller, so the 300 dollars or 150 dollars you shed on it include the price of the controller.

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Ah, for a second I thought none of the companies were licensing it and did wonder why Sony was the only offending party. How could Sony's legal department be so dumb?

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They're probably used to inventing their own crazy techonolgies that they don't want to share with anybody: MiniDisc, Betamax, UMD, you name it... :deranged:

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so it is only the current ps2 with the bundled controllers that would be banned from sale. that is what caused the confusion, i thought they couldn't sell the ps2 itself anymore!

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Hmmm. Yes, I assume the patent law would only apply to the controller. But since the system itself sends rumbling instructions, I don't know what patent law thinks of the whole thing. Anyone know if anyone other than the main console company needs to pay for the license? Developers? Third party manufacturers, or only Nintendo and Microsoft? Any third-party controllers for PS2 that actually do pay it?

Patent law sure is fun.

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In 2003 Immersion settled another patent suit with Microsoft related to its Xbox Video game console.

National Pubic Radio news, 3/28/05

The lawsuit from Immersion was originally filed in 2002. Sony Corporation will be allowed to continue selling their consoles with the Dual Shock controllers as they are expected to appeal the decision (after losing the suit and thus ordered to do so).

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So, Immersion makes all of its money out of lawsuits. God bless (The United States of North) America!

Then again, you gotta protect your junk.

Also, don't forget the PSOne, which I believe comes with controllers implmenting DualShock.

This article on CNET says

In a separate order, Wilken consented to Immersion's request for an injunction barring Sony "from manufacturing, using and/or selling in, or importing into, the United States the infringing Sony PlayStation system." The injunction further instructed Sony to pay licensing fees to Immersion for PlayStation hardware already sold in the United States.

Using? Guys, stop playing Playstation 2! you are committing a felony!

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Reiterating what nsps said, how could Sony, with their huge amount of legal resources, overlook this fairly obvious patent? How could any large company or anyone, for that matter? Surely they must have been aware that sooner or later they'd get their asses burned.

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Yeah, I'm pretty interested as to how they thought they could pull this off. Surely Sony would have been able to afford the licensing fee anyway?

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Yeah, I'm pretty interested as to how they thought they could pull this off.

I believe it's called "sneaking," a tactic applied by large corporations and patchy hobos alike.

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:erm: Right. Sneaking tens of millions of dollars in U.S. sales of Playstation 2 consoles with their requisite tactile response technology right over the nose of Immersion Corporation who patented that technology a long time ago? My, my.

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Yes, they were hoping that no one would notice their controllers rumbled.

In other rumble news, I think Dreamcast controllers rumbled, and N64 had an add-on for rumble. Or maybe they were both add ons. Hope you've enjoyed this confident and 100-percent-accurate history.

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