-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Sony loses court battle with Immersion
- Thread starter Wulfer
- Start date
From my research on this suit I came to this conclusion, I posted this on a different board:
This is the lawsuit that never ends. This verdict is old news, by the time anything is settled Sony will have phased out the Immersion patented products completely.
Not to mention the high winability that Sony will see should they continue appealing, since Immersion's patent is suspect at best. As of now Immersion has gotten rather lucky that its in lower court systems where judges make nothing but rulings based on precident and don't want to mess much with the delicate system of patents. Higher level courts however are the ones setting the precidents and will only use this case as an ideal example to hammer home legislative precident against vaguely worded patents that aren't being actively used by the patent holder, exactly what Immersion's was. Not to mention that Immersion obviously intentionally delayed any legal action until there was an increased number of potential violators, many with long histories of violation. It increases their cash payout should they win, but its yet another loop hole in patent laws that many higher level judges want to seal off.
My personal bet? In about five years this will all get summed up, Immersion would have gotten jack squat out of Sony, and will likely end up going under with MS gaining said flimsy patent and all of Immersion's other patents.
As for why they aren't touching Nintendo, well, they simply can't. Nintendo beat them to the punch. As long as they ignore Nintendo they can hope that Nintendo will continue to stay out of it. Nintendo is honestly being far too respectable a company right now for their own good. They could sue Immersion and basically take everything the company has, including the patent that is letting them pursue legislation against Sony. Immersion's vague patent was actually in violation of Nintendo's previous, much more precisely worded patent, so its invalid should someone from Nintendo choose to actually bring legal action.
This is the lawsuit that never ends. This verdict is old news, by the time anything is settled Sony will have phased out the Immersion patented products completely.
Not to mention the high winability that Sony will see should they continue appealing, since Immersion's patent is suspect at best. As of now Immersion has gotten rather lucky that its in lower court systems where judges make nothing but rulings based on precident and don't want to mess much with the delicate system of patents. Higher level courts however are the ones setting the precidents and will only use this case as an ideal example to hammer home legislative precident against vaguely worded patents that aren't being actively used by the patent holder, exactly what Immersion's was. Not to mention that Immersion obviously intentionally delayed any legal action until there was an increased number of potential violators, many with long histories of violation. It increases their cash payout should they win, but its yet another loop hole in patent laws that many higher level judges want to seal off.
My personal bet? In about five years this will all get summed up, Immersion would have gotten jack squat out of Sony, and will likely end up going under with MS gaining said flimsy patent and all of Immersion's other patents.
As for why they aren't touching Nintendo, well, they simply can't. Nintendo beat them to the punch. As long as they ignore Nintendo they can hope that Nintendo will continue to stay out of it. Nintendo is honestly being far too respectable a company right now for their own good. They could sue Immersion and basically take everything the company has, including the patent that is letting them pursue legislation against Sony. Immersion's vague patent was actually in violation of Nintendo's previous, much more precisely worded patent, so its invalid should someone from Nintendo choose to actually bring legal action.
I guess Immersion has a patent on this also:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-q-70-2pn.html#
or perhaps this:
http://home.comcast.net/~joeseph/Vibrator.jpg
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-q-70-2pn.html#
or perhaps this:
http://home.comcast.net/~joeseph/Vibrator.jpg
MegaByte
Member
Has anybody actually read Immersion's patent portfolio? They repeatedly make references to game controllers by Nintendo, Sega, and Sony, besides directly referencing the one Nintendo patent. It baffles me how Sony's lawyers still haven't been able to use Nintendo or a vibrator for that matter as prior art.
This is what I wrote on Slashdot last year when the lawsuit first went public:
This is what I wrote on Slashdot last year when the lawsuit first went public:
Private agreements do not exist because they're unenforceable. If Nintendo truly had prior art, Sony could simply point that out and Immersion would lose their patent. It would be up to Nintendo to sue Sony.
For what it's worth, Immersion isn't just a fake-patent shadow company. Their work in true-force feedback devices is truly monumental. They're responsible for the real force-feedback technology of joysticks, steering wheels, and professional haptic stuff used to train surgeons, etc.
For what it's worth, Immersion isn't just a fake-patent shadow company. Their work in true-force feedback devices is truly monumental. They're responsible for the real force-feedback technology of joysticks, steering wheels, and professional haptic stuff used to train surgeons, etc.
MegaByte
Member
Regardless of what is actually patented, it seems like Sony could use some sort of bad faith argument like the Microsoft FAT patent invalidation because Immersion waited so long to sue after repeatedly acknowledging products that used their patented technology. I would assume Sony's lawyers know what they're doing, so the story is likely deeper than we know.
KilledByBill
Member
Where would someone get an idea like that? As long as there was an Offer, Acceptance, and Consideration you have a contract, private or otherwise.