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"PS2 pulled out of US market."

How very interesting. Sony have been slapped with a $90.7million fine, and have been told to "Withdraw PS2 consoles from the US market". This will not take place until an appeal is heard, but it could be bad news for a certain company...

[URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4387045.stm[/URL]

No. If you're a big company you have people to check that everything doesn't infringe things created already.

Doesn't matter where you are, if you copy someone's idea or come up with it independently after it's already patented it then you were too late. If you go ahead with your idea without checking if it's already been copyrighted then that's your fault.

If Sony knew they were copying the patent then surely they wouldn't have done it - for the very reason that it would cause them problems later down the line, like it is.

That is unless, of course, they were sure that they could win their appeal.

Ha ha!

Strafio you're insane!

You do know sony tried to prove the owned the bond licence a while back?

Sony are very good at ripping things off, stealing innovative ideas and generally takeing the pee.

If you had a good idea that you created and registered would you want to get your rewards for your work or would you do nothing when a big compnay copied your ideas and offered you nothing for them?

It's only in America. You can't do stuff like that over here, although people want to - I think it's a stupid idea.

Clearly all that happened here is that Sony's idea for rumble enducing software infringed on someone elses patent without them realising. There are specific companies set up in the US to register patents, just so they can catch out huge corporations like Sony and make a killing.

Yeah.

I don't like this case at all.
Unless Sony did steal from this Immersion company, which I doubt, then Sony made something good of their own accord but some corporation who might not even have any uses for this "thing" they patented are milking them for it.

Bad news for innovators everywhere.

Yes, I know some will say that Sony aren't the biggest innovators in the game industry, but they do a fair bit and to be bitten like this?
I'm just glad that the supreme court ruled against patenting DNA patterns for stem cells!

Stupid corporations turning ideas in to property!

I think it's more to do with the technology that creates the rumble than the actual motor itself.

Nintendo I think already proved that they used their own technology, which they'd already patented, in this case previously, whereas Sony's technology is obviously a copy of Immersion's.

Rumpadodosnitzle wrote:
> and they practically invented it
> themselves on the N64 with Lylat Wars.

You can invent anything you like, but if someone has a patent on it then you can't use it.

Patents are good in some cases, but most of the time they're a complete biatch to innovation as you can make something yourself to find that someone else has beaten you to it.

The forum that gets 6 posts a day?

Not really no.

But if people were so bothered by Sony, wouldn't they go into the Sony forum?

Market rival.