from PTSC board/by ptscman

Subject: California Ruling

From ptscman

PostID 460338 On Wednesday, March 15, 2006 (EST) at 11:28:51 PM

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NEW YORK, March 14, Mar 14, 2006 (Kyodo via COMTEX) -- A U.S. court has rejected an appeal by the Sony group against a 2005 jury verdict that ordered it to pay damages to U.S. game machine developer Immersion Corp. for infringing on its patents for a technology that makes game controllers vibrate, the U.S. media said Monday.

The rejection by the U.S. District Court in Oakland may affect the future of controller technology that the Sony group will use in its next-generation video game console PlayStation 3, scheduled to be released later this year, they said.

Some U.S. news organizations speculated that Sony may agree to pay damages, which may include royalties to use Immersion`s technology to make controllers vibrate in reaction to events on the screen.

On March 24, 2005, the court`s jury ordered Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and its arm Sony Entertainment America Inc. to pay $90.7 million damages to the San Jose, California-based Immersion for the patent infringement on its ``haptics`` technology.

In addition, the jury ordered the Sony side to halt the marketing of its PlayStation and PlayStation 2 video game consoles.

The verdict has since led the two Sony units to appeal, only to be turned down by the California court this month.

Sony Computer`s popular PlayStation video game consoles incorporate Sony`s DualShock technology, which also makes controllers vibrate to allow users to feel immersed in the video games.

Immersion, which holds a patent on the vibration technology in the United States, filed the lawsuit in September 2004.

2006 Kyodo News (c) Established 1945.

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