Sony Sued Again

blu-ray been out for a year and they are only sueing now sounds like some one trying to make a fast bit of cash.
 
This is a non-story. Sony will throw them a wad of cash to shut up and go away, which is the reason why 99% of these lawsuits are made.

Does anyone seriously think that all bluray titles are going to be yanked from stores?
 
did anyone seriously think that Sony would release the PS3 sans rumble...;)

Seriously though, if the company has the patent and there is no prior art (this is an important bit*), and can show that the method Sony are using to produce Blu-ray disks infringes on the patent then yes, Sony could be forced to either licence it, pull blu-ray disks from the market, or come up with some other method of making them (IIRC the patent covers one, cheaper method of making the disks so Sony would probably have the option of spending an extra penny or so per disk to use the alternate method).

Some lawsuits are silly, others have a good grounding in reality and a valid patent case is more the latter than the former (without patents there would be no reason for any company to invest in R&D, and whilst the system can be abused there are a number of safe guards built into it).



*Basically if Sony could show they, or indeed anyone else had produced disks using a close enough method to the one described in the patent, before the patent had been filed they will win the case fairly easily.
It's the reason you never demonstrate something before you have the patents in place, as someone else can then copy the idea and get it into the public before any patent is filed - thus nullifying your patent attempts. It's also the reason Imersion didn't sue nintendo at the same time they sued Sony and MS, Nintendo had created a similar (but slightly different) tech for rumble at about the same time, and thus the outcome of any legal action was very uncertain.
 
AS_Dodger said:
This is a non-story. Sony will throw them a wad of cash to shut up and go away
Click to expand...

Oh i dont know. They didnt give imersion a wad of cash to keep quiet about the rumble bit

If they dont with this and all the blue rays are pulled from the shelves then it could give HD-DVD a very big lead
 
If you read the article it says that Sony use silver instead of gold.

Gold is obviously the better material otherwise the other company would have used silver because its cheaper.

Therefore Sony must have conducted further research into the technology to make silver a viable material choice.

I'd personally say that the case is pretty weak against them.

What does the patent say: You cant use any metal or metal ally as a protection against corrosion on an optical medium. Thats pretty broad if you ask me.
 
the other company does use silver, they apparantly found a way to use particular silver alloys instead of gold to keep costs down. sony apparantly stole this patent
 
Malc said:
If you read the article it says that Sony use silver instead of gold.

Gold is obviously the better material otherwise the other company would have used silver because its cheaper.

Therefore Sony must have conducted further research into the technology to make silver a viable material choice.

I'd personally say that the case is pretty weak against them.

What does the patent say: You cant use any metal or metal ally as a protection against corrosion on an optical medium. Thats pretty broad if you ask me.
Click to expand...

If they had the patent for a paticular process and sony used it then yes sony must pay.. they must havesome sort of case but wether it ever ends up in a courst is another matter. I expect sony will just settle if it comes to it.
 
The strange thing is, Target Technologies say they had a patent in 2004, i am sure Blu-Ray has been around in Japan since April 2003. SO SOny should be able to give a smack down on it, unless they where stupid enough not to patent it correctly, or changed the discs to incorporate the technology since they first released Blu-Ray.
 
JUMPURS said:
The strange thing is, Target Technologies say they had a patent in 2004, i am sure Blu-Ray has been around in Japan since April 2003. SO SOny should be able to give a smack down on it, unless they where stupid enough not to patent it correctly, or changed the discs to incorporate the technology since they first released Blu-Ray.
Click to expand...

edit: part of the disks sony is using uses the same tech and protection process that this company has developed, without having any details it looks like they could have a case.

Sony may have ahd Blu Ray disks for a while but this may be a recent addition into newly produced disks that was not in the odler ones
 
Last edited:
Nzyme said:
its not about actual blu ray tho its about a process used for it aint it ?
Click to expand...

It seems to be for the actual disc itself? Maybe it is only happened since they started releasing 'Pre-Recorded' discs.
 
If you read the article, its the protective layer that it the patent in question, a patent that has been developed by the company and sold to BR producers, Sony just took it without paying...

Rumble all over again
 
Posty said:
why would you want a inferior product to win?
Click to expand...
Cheaper, no region control.


I don't prefer one to the ther but you can't outright state one is better just because it's larger.
 
Surely they wouldn't be just taking Sony to court but rather the whole of the Blu-ray Disc Association, which includes:-

Board of Directors
Apple, Inc.
Dell
HP
Hitachi
LG
Mitsubishi Electric
Panasonic
Pioneer
Philips
Samsung
Sharp
Sony
Sun Microsystems
TDK
Thomson
Twentieth Century Fox
Walt Disney
Warner Bros.

I wouldn't want to fight that lot in court I can tell ya!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom