Sony Wins Court Battle Over Patent Infringement Allegations
Sony has successfully defended itself in a court battle against Genuine Enabling Technology (GET), who accused the PlayStation manufacturer of violating one of its controller technology patents. The lawsuit, initially filed in 2017, targeted Sony in relation to the PlayStation 4.
According to a report by Gamesindustry.biz, GET had sought $500 million in damages, claiming that Sony had infringed on a patent titled ‘Method and Apparatus for Producing a Combined Data Stream and Recovering Therefrom the Respective User Input Stream and at Least One Input Signal.’
GET alleged that Sony had infringed upon the patent through the communication method between PlayStation controllers and the console. The accusation specifically focused on the use of a ‘slow varying’ frequency for traditional button inputs, while utilizing a higher frequency for motion-based controls. GET argued that no other controllers or devices had implemented this technology until their patent was created.
Sony countered the claims by stating that GET failed to demonstrate that their technology was “structurally equivalent” to any component within PlayStation devices.
The judge ruled in favor of Sony, finding that GET had not presented enough evidence to dispute the facts and ultimately concluding that Sony did not infringe on the patent.
Aside from the case against Sony, GET also has a similar lawsuit against Nintendo involving the same patent. Although Nintendo had previously won the case in 2020, it has been reopened in 2022 and is still ongoing.