raehtz10

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...nm/tech_sony_dc

"Sony Corp. (6758.T) said on Monday it was ordered by a U.S. court to halt sales of its blockbuster PlayStation consoles in the United States and pay $90 million in damages to a California tech company, Immersion Corp. , whose shares jumped more then 5 percent."

Sparticus

and has anyone ever heard of Immersion? I haven't. sounds like a company is trying to make a fast buck at Sony's expense.

does that mean Immersion is gonna sue Microsoft because the XBox controller "vibrates in sync with actions in games" as well?

ghey

Casper

Nope, they already hit Microsoft... thats why their now suing Playstation eyeroll.gif

Click me for proof

supercow

dang guys, thats why patents are there! what would you be thinking if you were the little guy, immersion, and microsoft stole your invention? apprently it's more complicated than just vibrating because there would have been issues waaay back with n64. must be the way in which the vibrations are created....

silvertibbs

All it is is uneven weights being spun around. I have a clear blue Dual-Shock controller and It has 3/4 of a wieght in the handles. I'm pretty sure that's how she works but how fast and all that I have no clue.

I say good for the little guy.

Arctic Seraph

Well...whoever thought up the idea of vibration couldn't have been them...I mean pagers had them way before...and like what's his face above ^^ said...it just a small motor with a small weight on one side, and it spins fast enough to cause the motor to "vibrate".

Casper

Well, actually, didnt Microsoft have a joystick that had off of this? "Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro". It vibrated & kicked back & had resistance. Not that I am supporting Microsoft or other big companies over small... its just that these products were out before.

supercow

thats what i'm saying just a change to that even if it be a small one is repatentable. something as small as how the weights are designed could be patented.

anyways in this situation it doesn't effect us at all and microsoft and sony were probably expecting it. sometimes for them it's easier to pay after the fact (a week of selling ps2's and games will surely pay for it) than to worry about it before.

fonseca

I'm convinced that this is the easiest way to make money. File a bunch of patents that get buried over the years, wait for someone else to come up with something similar, keep waiting while they do all the work, and then sue them. It certainly seem to happen pretty regularly. Anyone remember the dozens of URL lawsuits?