Sony ordered to pay $90 million, halt game sales
By Reuters
http://news.com.com/Sony+ordered+to+pay+90+million%2C+halt+game+sales/2100-1047_3-5641924.html
Story last modified Sun Mar 27 20:55:00 PST 2005
Sony has been ordered by a U.S. court to pay about $90 million in damages and to halt game console sales in the United States in a patent infringement case against Immersion, the company's game unit said Monday.
Sony Computer Entertainment said it disagreed with the decision by a federal district court in California and would appeal to a higher court.
SCE said it will continue U.S. sales as the suspension order--which covers PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles, two game controllers and 47 software titles--will not go into effect before the appeal and because Sony will be paying compulsory license fees to Immersion, an SCE spokeswoman said.
Immersion, a San Jose, Calif.-based developer of tactile feedback technology, claimed Sony Computer Entertainment infringed on its technologies that make a game controller vibrate in sync with actions in games, the Japanese game maker said.
The court's decision confirmed a ruling by a California jury last year that ordered Sony to pay $82 million in the case. The amount was raised to slightly more than $90 million due to interest.
In another intellectual property-related lawsuit between Japanese and U.S. technology companies, Toshiba was ordered by a California jury last week to pay a total of $465 million in punitive and other damages to Lexar Media for stealing trade secrets.
Toshiba, the world's seventh-largest chipmaker, suggested it would appeal the decision.
================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu
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