Sony Sued Over Blu-Ray Technology
- Scribbled on May 24th, 2007 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Hardware Peripherals, Industry News, Sony PlayStation 3
Just when everything is looking bright and sunny for Sony, splat. Something comes and lightly bounces on their head like a 2 ton elephant. According to GameSpot:
Given its global position as an electronics giant, Sony is quite familiar with patent law. The company is also quite familiar with the potential penalties for running afoul of patent law, as evidenced by the $97 million in damages and interest it had to pay Immersion Corporation in a dispute over the rumble functions in Dual Shock controllers.
While the two companies have since patched things up, Sony opted to leave rumble by the wayside when it was designing the PlayStation 3’s motion-sensing Sixaxis controller. The electronics giant couldn’t avoid patent headaches entirely, however, as Irvine, California-based Target Technology Company filed suit earlier this month, seeking damages for alleged patent violations relating to the Blu-ray technology used in the system.
The suit, which names Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Pictures, and Sony DADC, claims that products marketed under the Blu-ray name infringe on a patent it owns for reflective layer materials in optical discs. The patent addresses what Target called a need for specific types of silver-based alloys with the advantages (but not the price) of gold. According to the patent, the alloys are also more resistant to corrosion than pure silver. The patent was filed in April of 2004 and granted in March of 2006.
Target is seeking a permanent injunction preventing Sony from violating its patent rights in the future, as well as damages with interest, multiplied due to what it characterizes as deliberate and willful infringement.
Neither Sony representatives nor Target attorneys had returned GameSpot’s requests for comment as of press time.
Ain’t that a kick in the head?
May 24th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
HAHAAHAHAHA. I’d love to know how this can happen, I mean… are there people in the Sony camp that are supposed to look this stuff up?
Or was it just pushed to completion quickly?
On one hand, I’m like “holy crap, you guys didn’t catch this?” on the other I’m like “patents are allowed to be so vague I’m not surprised.”
And, it seems, big companies don’t always win in patent wars, so this is really in question.
I cannot wait to see how it shakes out.
May 24th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
sony diserved this. With any luck, blu-ray will be removed, and the BS3 will be 600 dollars cheaper. get a 360 instead.
May 25th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Patent law is totally fubared. There are companies out there that do nothing but collect ridiculous patents, while producing nothing but lawsuits.
My guess is Sony was well aware of this, and plan to fight it in court or settle it.
This isn’t really a big deal, its just Big Business as usual.