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If you recall, about two years ago Sony got sued over its force feedback designs by patent holders, Immersion, and lost. Sony was forced to pay extensive damages, royalties, and license fees to Immersion and establish licensing agreements for future products. Tough break, right? Well, it seems that Sony isn't quite finished being put through the ringer, as a new claim has come from a New Jersey inventor, John Thorner, which alleges that Sony and its affiliates cheated him out of royalties for a license he held for the technology.
According to Thorner's official complaint, viewable here, he retained patents for vibration feedback, which he then licensed exclusively to Immersion. Then, when relations went south, Thorner then scrapped his deal with Immersion and sold his patents to PDP, another manufacturer Immersion sought damages from around the same time as their litigation against Sony, for $150,000. As it turns out, at least as far as Thorner says, PDP and Sony were in league with each other to secure the patents and avoid hefty payouts to Immersion. Thorner alleges that the partnership between PDP and Sony was hidden from him to distract from the larger picture and keep the cost of acquiring his patent down. After Sony's appeal of the ruling in the Immersion suit failed, Immersion then came after Thorner. Thorner is now also claiming that Sony had agreed to represent him should Immersion pursue legal action against him, and has failed to come to his defense.
Time and a truckload of legal fees will determine the validity of Thorner's claims, but whatever the results, this is clearly a tangled web of litigation that will take months to resolve.
source
it seems sony and nintendo are always getting sued.
According to Thorner's official complaint, viewable here, he retained patents for vibration feedback, which he then licensed exclusively to Immersion. Then, when relations went south, Thorner then scrapped his deal with Immersion and sold his patents to PDP, another manufacturer Immersion sought damages from around the same time as their litigation against Sony, for $150,000. As it turns out, at least as far as Thorner says, PDP and Sony were in league with each other to secure the patents and avoid hefty payouts to Immersion. Thorner alleges that the partnership between PDP and Sony was hidden from him to distract from the larger picture and keep the cost of acquiring his patent down. After Sony's appeal of the ruling in the Immersion suit failed, Immersion then came after Thorner. Thorner is now also claiming that Sony had agreed to represent him should Immersion pursue legal action against him, and has failed to come to his defense.
Time and a truckload of legal fees will determine the validity of Thorner's claims, but whatever the results, this is clearly a tangled web of litigation that will take months to resolve.
source
it seems sony and nintendo are always getting sued.
