Some Seriously Bad News For Sony


kotd

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From http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?s...=technologyNews

"TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp. said on Monday it was ordered by a U.S. court to halt sales of its blockbuster PlayStation consoles in the key U.S. market and pay $90 million in damages to a small U.S. tech company, Immersion Corp.
Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), Sony's gaming unit, said it would appeal the decision by a California federal court in the patent infringement case.

For the time being, Sony will keep selling PlayStations as the order -- which covers the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, two game controllers and 47 software titles -- will not go into effect before the appeal, an SCE spokeswoman said. Sony will be paying compulsory licence fees to Immersion, she added.

Games have been Sony's profit driver in recent years, accounting for 44 percent of the company's group operating profit in October-December, as it struggles with price declines at its electronics division.

Sony in January cut its operating profit estimate for this business year by 31 percent, citing sharply falling prices of televisions, DVD recorders and other key products and weak demand for chips.

Immersion, a California-based developer of digital touch technologies, claimed Sony Computer Entertainment infringed on its technology that makes a game controller vibrate in sync with actions in games, the Japanese game maker said.

The $90 million awarded by the court is more than triple Immersion's total revenues of $23.8 million in 2004 and represents two-thirds of the company's current market value of around $135 million.

The court's decision confirmed a ruling by a California jury last year that ordered Sony to pay $82 million in the case. The amount was raised to slightly over $90 million due to interest.

Shares in Sony were down 0.91 percent at 4,360 yen in afternoon trade, underperforming the Tokyo stock market's electric machinery index, which rose 0.35 percent. Immersion's stock last traded on Thursday at $5.75, down 11 cents.

In another intellectual property-related lawsuit between Japanese and U.S. technology companies, Toshiba Corp. was ordered by a California jury last week to pay a total of $465 million in punitive and other damages to Lexar Media Inc. for stealing trade secrets.

Toshiba, the world's seventh-largest chip maker, suggested it would appeal the decision.

Toshiba shares were down 0.22 percent at 446 yen, extending Friday's 0.45 percent slide.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved."

WTF???? 90 million plus prohibition from selling the console??? also The PS1 dual shock controller came out in like 1997, why did they suddenly decide to sue? Also N64 was the first to have rumble and why is Microsoft and Nintendo getting away with the vibration thing. I think its absurd. I hope they win the appeal to at least be able to sell consoles.
 
I read this in the official ps2 mag quite a while ago.

They also had to pay to continue using the offending piece in the dual shock controller.
 
Yeah but now their being told to cease production of all PS2s and PS1s in the US. And I still don't know why microsoft and nintendo have not been targeted.
 
For some reason I want to call shennanigans, couldn't sony just buy them out and tell them to shut their faces? "Here's money, now go home and roll in it."

Plus there's the rumble pack arguement, the "rumble in arcades" arguement, and the gamecube/xbox still having rumble arguement.
 
I saw this article yesterday and was gonna post it in the "Twitchy dual shock" thread just for laughs... the pun being here I am defending the PS2 dual shock and then I'm posting an article about how they are being ordered to stop making the dual shock... but I felt like... damn... that would be contrived :p
 
lol yeah Sony show em whos boss and just buy em out and fire them all, that'll teach em :D

Whoo over 1000 posts!
 
M$ settled out of court early, I dont believe Ninty was named in the suite but it's likely they did as well, I figure Sony thought they could still wint the case and may still on appeal. Sony will only be forced to stop production untill they reach a licencing agreement assuming they can't get an appeal to go through allowing them to continue untill their other legal issues are settled. If anything it just means they'll redesign the rumble feature for the PS3.
 
kotd posted on Mar 28 2005 at 09:48 AM said:
Also N64 was the first to have rumble and why is Microsoft and Nintendo getting away with the vibration thing.
Nintendo licensed the technology from them in the first place. Sony and Microsoft just ripped it off.
Edit: Actually, just checked that and its not completely true:
"Oddly enough, Nintendo was never named in the suit, even though they have rumble technology in their GameCube controllers, and are not openly named as a licensee of Immersion's patents. This could stem to some agreement between Nintendo and Immersion, because Nintendo had patented the Rumble Pack for the Nintendo 64 a year before Immersion was granted their patent. One theory is that should Immersion try to sue Nintendo on the issue, Nintendo could pull their trump card of a previous patent against Immersion and force Immersion to lose their patent. Either that, or somehow Nintendo's GameCube controller uses their own technology that stems from their Rumble Pack patent, and thus would not infringe upon Immersion's patents."
 
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To clarify: yes, this order is correct. But what the link leaves out is that part that it was immediately stayed pending appeal. I very much doubt that the final order will do anything as strong as stopping sales. I think the end result will be only that Sony will be out a lot more cash than if they had just settled like Microsoft did.
 
well the rumble pack doesnt work at all like the DualShocks on th PS AFAIK

the DualShock uses rotatating weights to create the rumble effect, and IIRC the rumble pack uses a weight moving packwards and forward on a single plane

and what will become of third party peripheral manufacturers

surely they use the same tech and Sony
 
The 3rd party controllers are generaly EXACTLY the same tech as the dual shock, those people have either settled immediatly upon first contact, are trying to sell all they can before they are contacted or are overseas companies that cant be touched because of how far underground they are.

This lawsuit has actually been going on for a year or more so I'm sure a lot of people have bowed out of the case already the media just focuses on Sony because they're the biggest name in the action.
 
OMG okay maybe this is more serious than we thought??


I"m watching CBS morning news... mind you CBS is one of the 'big three' top nationwide TV networks in the US... and anyways they just did a story on this Sony situation. Was really weird to see this on network news like this... to me that means this is really serious...

Okay so the judge did rule against Sony and ordered them to stop selling the PSX and PS2 systems along with a LOT of games, but Sony have appealed and will be allowed to continue selling until the appeal process plays out. Apparently if they lose they will also have to pull all the current systems off store shelves and of course will have to pay that huge fine/damages as well.

I really am in shock about this I mean I just can't believe it... they are gonna shut down the biggest game company and most popular system available today just over the rumble feature?

I guess the PSP about to get a lot more popular and maybe now this is a good time to buy a grip of PS2's to sell on ebay? :blink: :blink: :blink:

This REALLY f'ing sux....
 
This reminds me of something that I occasionally ponder.... Years ago, when the Atari Jaguar bombed, Atari only managed to continue because it successfully sued Sega. What was the suit? Incredibly, Atari owned the US patent on games systems that played through your TV!

I've often wondered why the current owners of Atari don't regularily sue Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft. Maybe the patent only applied to cartridge based systems? Or maybe the patent has lapsed? Maybe the whole thing was an April fools prank?

It's mentioned here if anyone's interested.

J(ohn)

Edit : it would seem that Atari actually own a shed load of patents on games stuff. Some are on this website.
 
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