Sony Ordered to Halt PlayStation Sales

[Chovexani]

Mar 28, 2005 — NEW YORK (Reuters) - 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. <IMMR.O>, whose shares jumped more then 5 percent.

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), Sony's gaming unit, said it would appeal the decision by a California federal court in the patent infringement case.

For the time being, Sony will keep selling PlayStations as the order — which covers the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, two game controllers and 47 software titles — will not go into effect before the appeal, an SCE spokeswoman said. Sony will be paying compulsory license fees to Immersion, she added.

<snip>

Immersion, a small, California-based developer of digital touch technologies, claimed Sony Computer Entertainment infringed on its technology that makes a game controller vibrate in sync with actions in games, the Japanese game maker said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=619259

Shouldn't they also be suing Nintendo then? Unless the Rumble feature on N64s & GCN controllers somehow works differently than Dual Shock. :shrug: Something tells me this decision isn't going to stick.