Sony going to be forced to halt PS2 production/sales?

[dukmahsik]

Sony loses Dual Shock patent case

"Reports are trickling through this evening that Sony has indeed lost its patent case against Immersion technologies and will be forced to halt sales of its PS2 console.

Immersion last year sued Sony for infringing on its patents. Immersion claims that it owns the technology that powers the rumble in Sony's Dual Shock controllers. It also sued Microsoft for its rumble features in the Xbox, but the boys from Redmond settled out of court.

Sony fought on, and lost a case last year. However, it's been allowed to continue selling the PS2 pending appeal. If the latest reports are verified, it's lost that appeal today.

This means that Sony not only has to pony up and awful lot of cash to Immersion Technologies, but it has to stop infringing on the patent - that means stop selling kit which includes Dual Shock technology, and that means pulling the PS2 off the shelf.

Commentators are wondering if this case is the reason for the PS3 controller redesign that we've seen - it's possible the horrendous boomerang monstrosity doesn't infringe on patents.

Interestingly, Immersion is owned in part by Nintendo. The next-generation battle just took another twist..."

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/03/13/sony_dual_shock_patent/

wow that would be HUGE hurt in Sony's major cash cow until PS3 comes out... maybe a major revision for PS3 controller too.

 

[Titanio]

News is a bit old - Sony is appealing again, so it'll be in legal hell for a while longer.

If they ultimately lose or don't settle out of court, the choice would be to cough up the damages and start paying licensing fees OR halt DS2/PS2. I'll let you guess which option they'd take.

 

[dukmahsik]

News is a bit old - Sony is appealing again, so it'll be legal hell for a while longer.

If they ultimately lose or don't settle out of court, the choice would be to cough up the damages and start paying licensing fees OR halt DS2/PS2. I'll let you guess which option they'd take.

shoulda opted for out of court settlement, would have saved them major $$$ and time

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Having seen the patent it should never have been upheld (or even granted) IMO. Sony had every right to contest it. That said, they've their own collection of insane patents too, so I guess it's poetic justice they get bitten by the same tactics they're happy to use.

 

[ban25]

They are already paying compulsary licensing fees. If they ultimately lose, they will probably just continue to pay those fees along with whatever judgement is issued.

News is a bit old - Sony is appealing again, so it'll be in legal hell for a while longer.

If they ultimately lose or don't settle out of court, the choice would be to cough up the damages and start paying licensing fees OR halt DS2/PS2. I'll let you guess which option they'd take.

 

[Sis]

Having seen the patent it should never have been upheld (or even granted) IMO.

Why is that? It seemed like a fairly straightforward patent to me. Patents in general seem too vague, I suppose, so maybe that's the problem with this one.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Because it wasn't new nor unobvious, like most patents, plus the lawsuit only applied to certain applications of the haptic feedback method. It wasn't every rumble enabled game that Immersion were complaining about, but about a dozen games, and as I recal it was certain patterns of motion or rumble that they were complaining about.