Sony loses Immersion patent case

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Dual Shock drops Sony in hot water over tactile feedback patents

A federal jury in the USA has found in favour of technology firm Immersion Corporation in a case taken against Sony two years ago, agreeing that the PlayStation\'s Dual Shock controllers infringe two Immersion patents.

The case focused on US patents 6,275,213 and 6,424,333, which cover "haptic feedback" - specifically, the use of computer-controlled vibrating motors to provide tactile feedback to the user of a program.

Immersion filed suit against both Sony and Microsoft for infringing these patents in early 2002, and settled out of court with Microsoft in mid-2003, with the Seattle-based giant paying the company $26 million to license the technology, and buying a portion of the firm in the process.

Sony\'s decision to fight on in the US courts turned out to be the wrong one this week, as the jury found in favour of Immersion in the case, and while no final judgement has been filed in the case, Sony has been ordered to pay $82 million in damages.

A number of post-trial motions and potentially appeals are expected to be lodged in the coming weeks, and Immersion has already begun rattling legal sabres, saying in a statement last night that it intends to ask the court for a permanent injunction against Sony.

This would effectively prevent the firm from selling any more Dual Shock controllers, although of course the real outcome here will be that Sony licenses the technology from Immersion, as Microsoft has done.

Lol, if Sony continues to use the dual shock technology they will be paying MS.  Priceless.

ironic

Found this too...

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"...One such motion that I\'m sure hasn\'t escaped Sony\'s legal team might involve the fact that Microsoft, a direct competitor of Sony in the video game market, owns 10% of Immersion. In essence, should Sony have to pay anything to Immersion in damages and/or licensing fees, Microsoft will make money off of their competition. An argument could also be made by Sony that Microsoft stands to benefit greatly if Immersion successfully gets an injunction against Sony that would force them to recall all PS2 consoles on store shelves with the Dual Shock 2 controller, as well as all extra Dual Shock 2 controllers for sale.

Should Sony have to recall those units, especially before the holiday season, Microsoft will then be without the market leader in the home video game console market, allowing them to reap benefits far beyond any monetary sums. In essence, it would be giving Microsoft an easy out in ridding themselves of competition--

Sony should have settled.

or do what m$ does, and just buy them

That differs from Sony how?

Originally posted by mm
or do what m$ does, and just buy them

[Living-In-Clip]

Originally posted by mm
or do what m$ does, and just buy them

Originally posted by Capcom
That differs from Sony how?

Exactly.

Sony could just settle, but they won\'t and now they put themselves in a bad situation. However, for MS, the long run would be best just to keep drawing money off Sony for every PS2 and Dual Shock sold.
:d

In related news Sony recently bought MGM studios, beating out Time Warner in a 5 billion dollar deal.

Sony didn\'t buy MGM on their own.

A consortium led by Sony Corporation of America and its equity partners Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Comcast Corporation and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, together with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which the investor group will acquire MGM for $12.00 in cash per MGM share, plus the assumption of MGM\'s approximately $2.0 billion in debt.

The investor group has committed a total of $1.6 billion in equity financing to acquire MGM as follows: Providence Equity Partners -- $525 million, Texas Pacific Group -- $350 million, Sony Corporation of America -- $300 million, Comcast Corporation -- $300 million, and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners -- $125 million. JP Morgan Chase has committed to lead a bank syndicate to provide up to $4.25 billion in senior debt financing together with Credit Suisse First Boston.

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