Immersion v. Sony (original) (raw)
In 2002, Sony and Microsoft were sued by Immersion for patent infringement for the use of vibration functions in their gaming controllers. Specifically, they were accused of infringing on claims in US Patent 6,424,333 and US Patent 6,275,213 (filed 2000 and 2001 as extensions of US Patent 6,088,017, itself filed 1998, all "Tactile feedback man-machine interface device"). Both patents were continuation applications of a patent application originally filed in November 1995. Nintendo was not involved in the case, as the technology used in the Rumble Pak and GameCube controller (and, subsequently, the Wii Remote) is based on a different design, for which Nintendo holds the patents US Patent 6,200,253 and US Patent 6,676,520 based on a Japan patent application filed on October 9, 1995.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| dbo:abstract | In 2002, Sony and Microsoft were sued by Immersion for patent infringement for the use of vibration functions in their gaming controllers. Specifically, they were accused of infringing on claims in US Patent 6,424,333 and US Patent 6,275,213 (filed 2000 and 2001 as extensions of US Patent 6,088,017, itself filed 1998, all "Tactile feedback man-machine interface device"). Both patents were continuation applications of a patent application originally filed in November 1995. Nintendo was not involved in the case, as the technology used in the Rumble Pak and GameCube controller (and, subsequently, the Wii Remote) is based on a different design, for which Nintendo holds the patents US Patent 6,200,253 and US Patent 6,676,520 based on a Japan patent application filed on October 9, 1995. While Microsoft settled out of court, purchasing a 10 percent share in Immersion, Sony continued to defend the case. Immersion's lead attorney in this case was Morgan Chu. The defense centered on a force feedback controller patent which Sony licensed from Logitech during 1998. Sony lost, with the jury awarding Immersion 82millionforthesevenyearsthattheDualShockcontrollerhadbeenonthemarket,whichwiththejudge′sadditionofpre−judgmentinterestandcosts,totalled82 million for the seven years that the DualShock controller had been on the market, which with the judge's addition of pre-judgment interest and costs, totalled 82millionforthesevenyearsthattheDualShockcontrollerhadbeenonthemarket,whichwiththejudge′sadditionofpre−judgmentinterestandcosts,totalled90.7 million. In addition, the judgment required Sony to suspend the sale of all controllers containing Immersion-patented technology, including all PlayStation and PlayStation 2 console packages. Sony appealed this decision and has been able to sell its products while the appeal was being heard. On March 8, 2006, Sony lost the appeal at the US District Court level and subsequently appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The order to halt sales of the infringing controllers was again stayed pending the outcome of the appeal. At E3 2006, Sony announced that vibration functionality would be removed from the PlayStation 3 controller, reasoning that the vibration would interfere with the motion-sensing feature of the controller. It has been speculated that the removal of vibration is related to the lawsuit, and Immersion President Victor Viegas has been dismissive of Sony's stated rationale. On March 1, 2007, Sony Computer Entertainment and Immersion Corporation announced that both companies have agreed to end their patent litigation, and have entered a business agreement to "explore the inclusion of Immersion technology in PlayStation format products." As part of the agreement reached between the two companies, Immersion will receive the full amount dictated by the District Court, which with interest is stated to total 97.2million,inadditiontoroyalties.Ontopofthe97.2 million, in addition to royalties. On top of the 97.2million,inadditiontoroyalties.Ontopofthe30.6 million in compulsory license fees which Sony had paid Immersion over the previous two years, Sony will make 12 more licensing payments through the end of 2009 totaling $22.5 million, during which other royalties may also be paid.The agreement also provides Sony with new rights with respect to Immersion's patents. The termination of the litigation will have no material impact on Sony's consolidated earnings forecast announced on January 30, 2007. (en) |
| dbo:thumbnail | wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/US_DC_NorCal.svg?width=300 |
| dbo:wikiPageExternalLink | http://www.immersion.com https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/5717161/immersion-corporation-v-sony-computer-entertainment-america-inc/ |
| dbo:wikiPageID | 6636272 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageLength | 7097 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger) |
| dbo:wikiPageRevisionID | 1109433501 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageWikiLink | dbc:United_States_District_Court_for_the_Northern_District_of_California_cases dbr:Rumble_Pak dbr:United_States_District_Court_for_the_Northern_District_of_California dbr:Patent_infringement dbr:SIXAXIS dbr:Electronic_Entertainment_Expo dbr:GameCube dbr:Morgan_Chu dbr:Wii_Remote dbr:Fed._Cir. dbc:2006_in_United_States_case_law dbr:Nintendo dbc:United_States_patent_case_law dbc:Microsoft_litigation dbc:Sony_litigation dbr:PlayStation dbr:PlayStation_2 dbr:PlayStation_3 dbr:Sony dbr:Immersion_Corporation dbr:Microsoft dbr:US_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Federal_Circuit dbr:Claudia_Wilken dbr:Continuation_application dbr:F._App'x dbr:US_District_Court |
| dbp:court | dbr:United_States_District_Court_for_the_Northern_District_of_California |
| dbp:dateDecided | 2006-03-08 (xsd:date) |
| dbp:docket | 4 (xsd:integer) |
| dbp:fullName | Immersion Corporation v. Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. et al (en) |
| dbp:imagesize | 150 (xsd:integer) |
| dbp:judge | dbr:Claudia_Wilken |
| dbp:name | Immersion v. Sony (en) |
| dbp:subsequentActions | Affirmed, 239 F. App'x 578 (en) |
| dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate | dbt:Citation_needed dbt:Reflist dbt:Short_description dbt:US_patent dbt:Infobox_United_States_District_Court_case |
| dcterms:subject | dbc:United_States_District_Court_for_the_Northern_District_of_California_cases dbc:2006_in_United_States_case_law dbc:United_States_patent_case_law dbc:Microsoft_litigation dbc:Sony_litigation |
| rdf:type | yago:WikicatTrialsWithCorporateDefendants yago:WikicatUnitedStatesDistrictCourtCases yago:Abstraction100002137 yago:Act100030358 yago:Activity100407535 yago:Attempt100786195 yago:Case107308889 yago:Event100029378 yago:Happening107283608 yago:PsychologicalFeature100023100 yago:YagoPermanentlyLocatedEntity yago:Test100791078 |
| rdfs:comment | In 2002, Sony and Microsoft were sued by Immersion for patent infringement for the use of vibration functions in their gaming controllers. Specifically, they were accused of infringing on claims in US Patent 6,424,333 and US Patent 6,275,213 (filed 2000 and 2001 as extensions of US Patent 6,088,017, itself filed 1998, all "Tactile feedback man-machine interface device"). Both patents were continuation applications of a patent application originally filed in November 1995. Nintendo was not involved in the case, as the technology used in the Rumble Pak and GameCube controller (and, subsequently, the Wii Remote) is based on a different design, for which Nintendo holds the patents US Patent 6,200,253 and US Patent 6,676,520 based on a Japan patent application filed on October 9, 1995. (en) |
| rdfs:label | Immersion v. Sony (en) |
| owl:sameAs | freebase:Immersion v. Sony yago-res:Immersion v. Sony wikidata:Immersion v. Sony https://global.dbpedia.org/id/4n4c9 |
| prov:wasDerivedFrom | wikipedia-en:Immersion_v._Sony?oldid=1109433501&ns=0 |
| foaf:depiction | wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/US_DC_NorCal.svg |
| foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf | wikipedia-en:Immersion_v._Sony |
| is dbo:wikiPageRedirects of | dbr:Sony_v._Immersion dbr:Sony_vs._Immersion dbr:Immersion_vs._Sony dbr:Immersion_vs._Sony_lawsuit |
| is dbo:wikiPageWikiLink of | dbr:List_of_United_States_patent_law_cases dbr:Patent_infringement dbr:Morgan_Chu dbr:DualShock dbr:Sixaxis dbr:Sony_v._Immersion dbr:Sony_vs._Immersion dbr:Immersion_vs._Sony dbr:Immersion_vs._Sony_lawsuit |
| is foaf:primaryTopic of | wikipedia-en:Immersion_v._Sony |
