Sony and Immersion end legal dispute

The running legal dispute between Sony Corp. and Immersion has come to a close finally, with Sony agreeing to pay $121 million to settle the ongoing patent infringement litigation. Both companies are now looking at possibility of Sony including Immersion's "touch feedback" technology in future products after features were removed from the PlayStation 3 (PS3) as a direct result of this dispute.

Sony Corp.'s gaming unit said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the federal circuit ordered the payment of damages, pre-judgment interest, costs, and interest to Immersion. In March 2005, Immersion won a judgment against Sony that would have halted PlayStation 2 (PS2) sales until royalties were paid.

Sony appealed the ruling, asking for a new trial at the time, but the motion was denied.

Sources:
Reuters
Betanews

Written by: James Delahunty @ 1 Mar 2007 19:02

Advertisement - News comments available below the ad

8 comments

h8breed

so now the "so last gen tech" is ok to be put in new sony stuff?
so any current ps3 owner will have to buy new controlers when sony brings out games for it. this is just like the ps1 analog controllers, that soon became just about required to play the games back then.

1.3.2007 19:33 #1

jutsu

the history is repeating

2.3.2007 00:34 #2

BIGnewb

i dont understand why sony always gets sued.every week its something else.they are just stupid and dont think and lose millions of dollars.and to make things worse ps3 isnt doing so good.i loved my ps2 so i love sony but then disc read errors on every version is kinda pushing it.so sony is diggin its own grave.

2.3.2007 04:14 #3

azndrake

WOOT THE RUMBLE PACK IS COMING BACK GUYS!! for the ps3

2.3.2007 10:59 #4

ZippyDSM

Originally posted by azndrake:WOOT THE RUMBLE PACK IS COMING BACK GUYS!! for the ps3It can however I don't really see it,mainly because theirs no need for it,I would like rumble o the WII tho,since its a dual handed design rumble can effect gameplay for the PS3 as it is I just don't see much they can do and they have to many issues to fix.

2.3.2007 12:39 #5

wetsparks

Originally posted by azndrake:WOOT THE RUMBLE PACK IS COMING BACK GUYS!! for the ps3
QFT

2.3.2007 18:36 #6

snige

A friend has a PS3 and I really miss the rumble feature. I know it's a small thing to moan about, but Resistance and all the other games do loose something when there's no rumble.

I don't know about Sony putting it back in. They are a stubbon company and may not want to admit defeat. Right from the moment we were told the controller would loose the rumble feature, Sony said it wasn't possible to have it and motion sensitive. But Immersion always said it would be possible.

But I really hope Sony works with Immersion and sorts this out, cos the PS3 really needs this.

3.3.2007 02:46 #7

h8breed

yes its possible to have motion and rumble. microsoft did it around 5 years ago in pc controler, and the wii is doing it now.

3.3.2007 16:56 #8

AfterDawn: News