Sony Sued Over PS3 Again

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kotaku said:
I've lost track of the number of people who have tried to sue Sony over the PS3 and/or Blu-Ray. Suffice to say, it's loads. Now, it's loads +1. Parallel Processing Corporation claim that the PS3's fancy Cell chip violates a patent they filed all the way back in 91 for something with "synchronized parallel processing with shared memory". The suit was filed on July 26 in Texas, and whines that the PS3 is "causing irreparable harm and monetary damage". Presumably to PPC. Not Sony...

Another damn lawsuit against Sony. I hate companies who make vague patents and the sit on them until they can sue somebody! Don't think this one will go anywhere though tbh.
 
I read the whole article on Wouldnt that be all multi core CPUs, as dont most multi core CPUs have shared memory and can act in parallel? But the Cell isnt multicore is it, well not as such, its a single core with 8 spe's.
 
spe's ??????

thought it was multicore thats why people where ravinng about it for future home use aswell as server use etc
 
knowlesy said:
spe's ??????

thought it was multicore thats why people where ravinng about it for future home use aswell as server use etc
All the cores are not equal like in the 360. The 6 sister spe's are a lot less powerful and have limited performance with certain types of calculations when compared to the main processor.
 
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Joebob said:
Another damn lawsuit against Sony. I hate companies who make vague patents and the sit on them until they can sue somebody! Don't think this one will go anywhere though tbh.

That's exactly my sentiment. Idiot vermin like these guys think up every vague patent they can. Wait for a big innovative corporation to spend billions on R&D and getting it manufactured. Wait until it's taken off then whine about how they had the idea first and demand shed loads of cash.

This suit won't just be against Sony as afaik Cell was a joint venture by IBM and Toshiba as well.
 
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STI will be fine. The courts are not stupid, although they have let a fair share of Davids bat down the Goliaths in the past. The Cell's design is unorthodox enough to render the patent claim in doubt.
 
If you own a patent though, don't you need to show to be actively using/developing the ideas contained within that patent?
Surely if they just patented it back in 91 and then never touched it, The companies behind the cell should be ok?
iirc a similar thing came up regarding copyright with the iPhone name, do patents work in a similar way?
 
Patents, copyright and trademark work in different ways.
The Iphone was trademark, and it's possible to have the same trademarked name in use by different companies, as long as they are in different fields - see the dispute between apple computers and apple corp (beatles), which for a long time basically meant that apple computers couldn't legally use the apple name for anything related to music.

Without knowing more about the actual patent and if anything was done with it, it's hard to say if it has any merit - you can come up with an idea and not actually develop it, and have the patent upheld, depending on how close a later developed product is to the original patent. It's quite possible to patent an idea years before the actual technology has reached a point where it's possible.
You generally patent the process or a way to implement a process, you don't have to have a working model (although it is a good idea to), as in some (many?) fields if you wait too long you risk someone else patenting it (so you want to get it patented as early as possible to protect yourself).
Once someone can show prior art (IE a previous example of the idea/method in the patent), the patent tends to be thrown out.

It's the reason Immerson and Nintendo came to an amicable agreement over their similar patents, they had both developed similar ideas and patented them at about the same time so both had a good chance of winning any legal dispute.

There are however a number of parasite companies, who basically just file patents on anything and everything, including things that have been around for years (IIRC one such patent covered something that was originally shown in an Altar computer, and the patent was filed 20 years after it), in such cases the courts have to decide if it's valid or not (and are usually pretty good).
 
Joebob said:
Another damn lawsuit against Sony. I hate companies who make vague patents and the sit on them until they can sue somebody! Don't think this one will go anywhere though tbh.
Yep, you see it all the time as well. Very vague that you know someone will tread on eventually. If the patent was made in '91 why haven't they utilised it in the FIFTEEN years they had it?
 
To be fair you're all assuming that this company are in the wrong and that Sony arn't infringing any patents.

Its possible that Sony have used someone elses idea, they've done it in the past.

I'd expect the courts to make a sensible decision, but you can't just assume they're parasites just because they're a small company who registered the idea 15 years ago, they might actually have a case.
 
chimaera said:
To be fair you're all assuming that this company are in the wrong and that Sony arn't infringing any patents.

Its possible that Sony have used someone elses idea, they've done it in the past.

I'd expect the courts to make a sensible decision, but you can't just assume they're parasites just because they're a small company who registered the idea 15 years ago, they might actually have a case.
Hmmm, well I guess we can all have our own opinions on it and I guess mine differs to yours.!!!
 
Joebob said:
Hmmm, well I guess we can all have our own opinions on it and I guess mine differs to yours.!!!

Fair enough :p I'm not saying they've got a legitimate case, just that Sony have paid tens of millions in recent years to settle patent infringements and we can't assume that they're always the people who have been wronged.

Patents exist to protect these things, and they do a lot of good no matter how much Sony feels aggrieved.
 
I really don't think such a patent will hold - "synchronized parallel processing with shared memory" wasn't even a new idea back in 1991.
 
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