Sony declared winner in $500M patent infringement suit
Image via Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Sony’s patent infringement lawsuit from Genuine Enabling Technology (GET) has ended in the PlayStation maker’s favor. Per GamesIndustry, the latter sought $500 million in damages.
GET filed the suit in 2017, alleging one of its patents was infringed upon. The ‘730 patent, ‘Method and Apparatus for Producing a Combined Data Stream and Recovering Therefrom the Respective User Input Stream and at Least One Input Signal,’ was established in 2001.
It claimed PlayStation consoles communicated with controllers using “slow-varying signals” for button inputs and high-frequency motion signals GET previously developed.
In court, Sony argued GET didn’t provide enough evidence to prove a component in its controllers was “structurally equivalent” to diagrams within the patent.
The judge agreed with Sony, stating that GET “failed to raise a dispute of fact.” Sony didn’t infringe on those patents, the judge said, and the case was subsequently closed.
GET filed a similar suit against Nintendo in 2020, claiming it also infringed on its patents. A judge also sided with Nintendo, but that decision was reversed in 2022, and the case is now ongoing.
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Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com
A Kansas City, MO native, Justin Carter has written for numerous sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his writing can be found at io9 over on Gizmodo. Don’t ask him about how much gum he’s had, because the answer will be more than he’s willing to admit.
