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Sony is having a rough week: Not only is the PlayStation 3 officially delayed until November, the company also lost another round in a court battle with Immersion

Immersion, a company that develops and licenses touch feedback technology, has won another round against Sony in the ongoing Dual Shock patent case.  Immersion accused Sony of stealing the technology that is used in the Dual Shock controller.  Sony plans to appeal the decision that claims it infringed on Immersion's patent.  In the latest spat between the two companies, Craig Thorner, a former Immersion consultant, has tried to prove that the company concealed information about new technologies he developed. 

Sony originally filed the appeal last week when Immersion, a developer and licensor of touch feedback technology, won a judgment against the Japanese company for violating existing patents by introducing the DualShock controller. According to the terms of the judgment, Sony would owe Immersion approximately $91 million and cease the sale of the controllers, PlayStation systems, and games that used the force feedback feature.

After losing another round in court, and officially announcing the delay of the PlayStation 3 launch, Sony is certainly having a troublesome week.

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One patent suit I'm inclined to agree with
By ninjit on 3/16/2006 1:58:34 AM , Rating: 2
Immersion has been around for a while, and is responsible for all the force-feedback devices we had on the PC side long before sony (or anyone else fo that matter) did anything on the console.

Their tech is behind the Microsoft Sidewinder flight sticks, and I assume the MS FF Sidewinder gamepads as well.
Logitech even made an FF mouse for FPS games with their tech.

So, unlike some other unscrupulous companies in the computer industry, immersion actually has a valid acase.




By DeathSniper on 3/16/2006 2:35:49 AM , Rating: 2
Wah...makes me wanna pull out my Logitech iTouch mouse again :D


RE: One patent suit I'm inclined to agree with
By yosefm on 3/16/2006 3:32:47 AM , Rating: 2
Heartily agree. Just wonder if MS is doing more here than watching? It would certainly help them in the console wars if Sony was distracted a bit more. It would also be a sort of measure for measure irony if true (Im referencing the DRM format conversion war they got caught in w Apple). Your point about Sony & licensing hits that particular chord as well.


By bob661 on 3/16/2006 2:45:41 PM , Rating: 2
How could they be distracted? It's not like the Sony employees themselves are in court. That's what lawyers are paid to do.


By Zoomer on 3/17/2006 4:49:10 AM , Rating: 2
Did microsoft license it for xbox?


Not too bad
By tmp8000 on 3/15/2006 10:29:34 PM , Rating: 2
Immersion, a company that develops and licenses touch feedback technology

See these types of cases do not bother me because, if that statement is correct, this is a company who isn't just sitting on something and suing to get some cash. They actually will give licenses which makes a world of difference to me.




Poor Sony
By vtohthree on 3/15/2006 11:31:03 PM , Rating: 2
I almost feel sympathy for the once big and evil corporate giant...now a quickly diminishing underdog fighting it's way back up, and struggling..


RE: Poor Sony
By nwrigley on 3/16/2006 1:14:12 AM , Rating: 3
It sucks because I love my Dual Shock 2, but if this is all true then Sony is getting what it deserves. They're the King of propriety technology that they license out to other companies, so if they tried to screw another smaller company out of their royalties, then they deserve to be screwed back harder like this.


sucks if they lose...
By NerV04 on 3/15/2006 9:04:00 PM , Rating: 2
does this mean i should buy all those games i want before they stop sony from selling them, if sony loses this case.




That's the real reason
By slider169 on 3/16/2006 10:27:41 AM , Rating: 2
That's the real reason why PS3 was delayed. There are no controllers to play with.




hummm
By QueBert on 3/16/2006 10:58:32 AM , Rating: 2
I always understood the use of a force feedback joystick. But I never really got much out of a gampad that rumbles. For me pads + force feedback don't go together.




Good!
By Mitul89 on 3/16/2006 6:02:47 PM , Rating: 2
Its a about time sony pays the money to immersion (nintendo). Sony always fucking copies features from nintendo especially controller features. Its just so annoying that a big company that is widely known would continuously copy from other companies. Sony is only good for LCD's other then that, they are shit especially when it comes to gaming however they do have some good games..




Go Immersion
By Egglick on 3/15/06, Rating: 0
"Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be." -- Steve Ballmer











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