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Controller Patent Problems Still Rumbling for Sony

By Chris Bennett, Tudor Carsten, Michael R. Coburn, Sarah Dale-Harris, Pablo Guzman, Danielle (Dani) Lemon, Chris Metcalfe and David Spratley

An interesting and complex case was reported on GamePolitics last week, alleging patent infringement as well as fraud, conspiracy and attorney malpractice against Sony, PDP/Electro Source and their attorneys.

According to the plaintiffs, Craig Thorner and his company Virtual Reality Feedback, the defendants attempted to use Mr. Thorner's patent for force feedback technology to gain a tactical advantage in Sony's battle with Immersion and appeal from the resulting $82M judgment.

Thorner claims that the lawyers for Sony and PDP "contrived to take advantage of Thorner's inexperience and lack of resources in order to (i) obtain a patent license from Thorner on extremely favorable terms, and (ii) induce Thorner to testify against Immersion." A number of serious allegations are made in the claim, including that Sony deliberately hid its partnership with PDP from Thorner in order to keep the licensing fees low. Thorner was also eventually sued by Immersion, and was found to have been an unreliable witness by the judge in original Sony case.

Coverage at GamePolitics and Law.com. A copy of the claim is available here.

Our coverage of the Sony v. Immersion suit is available here.

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Full post as published by Video Game Law Blog on May 04, 2009 (boomark / email).