Sony's Immersion Appeal Fails News
Chris Leyton
13/03/2006
A federal judge decides Sony will have to fork out for the DualShock controller; but will it be pulled from the shelves...
A landmark legal case brought about by Immersion Corporation in 2003, seeking alleged patent infringement against Sony and Microsoft, could provide yet another pitfall with the planned launch of the Playstation3.
Immersion's attempt to sue both hardware manufacturers successfully resulted in Microsoft settling an out of court agreement, whilst Sony decided to appeal against the decision. Today the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony's appeal has failed, and as a result the original ruling, which involves stopping sales of the DualShock and DualShock 2 controller, a handful of games and $90.7 million in damages, must surely stand.
Whilst Sony executives can worry about the settlement we're more interested to know whether the PS3's concept joypad is still based on such technology, or a concession that the DualShock's synonymous design had to change for a reason.
TVG will have further information soon...