Sony Sued Over Blu-ray Patent Infringement

[admin]

What's that Sony sued again for patent infringement? Yes, not content to just be getting over a settlement with Kodak over 10 digital camera patents and another with Immersion that dealt with force feedback controls on the Playstation2, Sony is being dragged into court again - this time over Blu-ray Disc manufacturing technology.

Discuss "Sony Sued Over Blu-ray Patent Infringement" here. Read the article.

 

[Seth=L]

I think that Sony may be cursed. They seem to loose at everything, and their audio products suck.

 

[westcott]

I had read this earlier and had heard many possible scenarios, including changing the media used for coating\reflection. It could be cause a stall in production if a license fee can not be hammered out for the technology.

 

[Nomo]

Hmmmmm
Jury trial? Put me on that panel.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Hmmmmm
Jury trial? Put me on that panel.

May not be so easy. The defense will interrogate you to no end

 

[BMXTRIX]

I would think that Target would first need to proove that Sony is indeed infringing on their patent before any royalty fees or anything else need to be discussed.

Hey! I came up with the idea for Blu-ray first! I'll sue Sony!

Every little company in the world wants a piece of them... I mean, what's a few million to them? So, everyone may go after them whether they have any actual claims or not.

Especially since I would think that a lot of this technology is based on film (photography) based emulsions which are decades old. Kind of hard to claim that your version 10 billion of an emulsion is identical to another company's version 10 billion and one.

 

[DavidW]

Hey! I came up with the idea for Blu-ray first! I'll sue Sony!

Every little company in the world wants a piece of them...

Kodak is hardly small, and they are not the only other company.

Perhaps the opposite scenario is true: Sony is so big they think that they can get away with what ever they want and step on who ever they want, but they keep getting caught.

What is interesting to note is that Sony keeps settling and paying up rather than fighting.

One would be foolish to fight battles if defeat is eminent.

 

[j_garcia]

One would be foolish to fight battles that will cost more than settling both in the public eye win or lose, and financially for the battle itself. It would seem from the article that it is a process more than anything, not something to do with the blue laser technology, and if vague enough, why not stop all optical disc production?

 

[dem beats]

I am not a big fan of sony.

The company is a bit too big for it's britches, and they feel they can command folks.

My impression of them is like some kind of maniacal mad scientest running an evil corporation.

The branch the sony PS 3 is part of is freaky man. they are bent on global domination. I for one would like bill Gates to win at least he has some roots in the USA
=D

this is all just my random thoughts about these issues.

 

[DavidW]

One would be foolish to fight battles that will cost more than settling both in the public eye win or lose, and financially for the battle itself. It would seem from the article that it is a process more than anything, not something to do with the blue laser technology, and if vague enough, why not stop all optical disc production?

Other optical disks, like CD and DVD, are based on aluminum reflective coatings.

While this issue is not with the blue laser itself, which is used in both HD formats, but to pack in more data Blu-ray needed a different coating to acommodate the tighter focal distance required of the laser to read smaller surface pits.

The silver based alloys in the patent are cheaper than the other option of using a gold based coating.

Here is some more reading to help clarify the issue:

Target Technology sues Sony for Blu-ray-related patent infringement

7,018,696

 

[j_garcia]

Yes, I realize it is the specific layer coating used for BDs, I was merely overstating. Target Technology sure does get a whole lot of free publicity out of the suit as well and as noted they will likely get either a big agreement on the technology and/or a fat check from Sony to put the issue to rest.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I would have to wonder what optical properties HD DVD uses within it's emulsion substrate that allows similar storage without Toshiba or HD DVD being 'Targeted' as well.

 

[Leprkon]

One would be foolish to fight battles that will cost more than settling both in the public eye win or lose, and financially for the battle itself.

If this was truly Sony's policy, then SACD and BluRay would not exist.