Sony was ordered by a U.S. court to halt sales of its
blockbuster PlayStation consoles in the United States and pay $90.7
million for patent infringement to a California tech company,
Immersion Corp.
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. Immersion filed the law suit and was awarded $82
million by a jury's decision in September, 2004, plus an additional
$8.7 million of interest.
Sony appealed the decision and was granted a stay of permanent
injunction, which allows the corporation to sell its products
during the appeals process. 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 Sony spokeswoman
said. Sony will be paying compulsory license fees to Immersion, she
added.
