Major Court ruling effecting Sony

[ashmufc]

Sony ordered to pay $90.7 mil. in patent infringement suit


Saturday, March 26, 2005 at 15:37 JST
LOS ANGELES ? The U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, has ordered Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and its U.S. unit to pay $90.7 million in damages to Immersion Corp. for patent infringement over controllers used with PlayStation game consoles.

In the ruling handed down Thursday, the federal court also ordered Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Entertainment America Inc. to stop selling the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 game consoles using Dualshock controllers as well as more than 40 game software products. (Kyodo News)

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content...at=3&id=332037

ANyone knows what this means, end of dual shock controllers in USA? Same for Europe?

[fasman]

Wow,thats bad news...I better stock up on controllers and games then

[ashmufc]

True dat! Sell em on eBay!

[onlynismo]

wow, that's crazy.

[AngryGir]

HAHAHAHAAAHAHA

You got to laugh at Bill Gates latest attempt to control a market. Microsoft bought the patent rights for Immersion Corp's dual shock technology or bought Immersion Corp, I forget which.

The positive side to this is that Sony will just end up devoloping a new technology to replace this one. $90.7 million is more than enough for R&D to produce an improved and inovative technology to replace the existing one.

The negative is that Sony will probally make games that only support the new format so we will all end up having to buy new controllers if we want the rumble effect.

[AngryGir]

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content...at=3&id=332037

ANyone knows what this means, end of dual shock controllers in USA? Same for Europe?

Depends, Sony could try to pay for rights to use this technology and then be allowed to continue to use it. USA courts have no juristiction over Europe so there is no stopping Sony from selling and using this technology there or in Japan. Intellectual property laws though are available in all three of these regions and basically follow the same madate, so if they were registered in those regions before Sony registered it, they would lose the case there too if it was brought to court. And I cannot see Microsoft not using this case to spring board new cases in the UK and Japan as well. I know if I was Microsoft I would, it is a wonderful way to get a competive edge over Sony until Sony devolops a new technology to replace the existing standard.

[chocolatecheese]

Sony could take this technology from the PS2s but would render all of the software with this technology unuseable.

[xiaNaix]

This all a big todo about nothing. Sony has not been forced to stop selling anything and, most likely, will simply start paying Immersion like everyone else does. I can't believe CNN is so stupid. Then again, yes I can.

[AngryGir]

I am not so sure. If I remember right Microsoft either bought Immersion or they bought the rights to this technology. Either way if you were Microsoft would you sell Sony the right to use this?

[poppa-smurf]

Immediately after the ruling, the court granted an injunction allowing Sony time for an appeal and/or to pay the proper licensing fees. This means that essentially there will be zero effect on the sales of controllers.
Don't worry people, you'll be able to get a new controller if your old one breaks. You honestly think Sony's lawyers would allow sales of controllers to halt because of some paltry $90 mill lawsuit??