SONY ordered to stop selling Playstation and Playstation 2
The Immersion Corporation has won it's patent battle with Sony, leaving Sony with a massive bill and and an injunction against selling Playstations, Dual Shock controllers and 47 named games which infringe Immersion's patents.
Sony are still able to sell the PSP, which it might need to do very well with if they don't win their appeal... as they'll have to foot a $90.7million USD bill for payment of past licences and pre-judgement interest.
You can check out the full release from Immersion here.
Judging (excuse the pun) from the ruling that's been given, Immersion must have a damn near bullet proof case. Usually, with patent infringement cases, there's a bit of grey area which is normally reflected in the ruling. That wouldn't appear to be the case here as the large back-dated license payments and interest would show. BUt the ban on the console, controllers and games underlines the strength of the case that Immersion must have had.
Of course, all this is now in the appeal process, so it may be some time until the matter is resolved.
Immersion expect Sony to post a bond which will mean they won't have to pay up immediately whilst their appeals are being processed.
Whatever, this is a fairly hefty slap on the wrist for Sony... perhaps they should've followed Nintendo's lead with patent claims and just settled out of court?