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Sony has won a court battle instigated by Genuine Enabling Technology (GET) that accused the PlayStation maker of infringing on one of its controller technology patents. At the time of filing, the most recent Sony console would have been the PlayStation 4.
As reported by Gamesindustry.biz, the lawsuit originally filed in 2017 by GET sought $500 million (around £395 million) in damages as it accused Sony of infringing on a patent entitled ‘Method and Apparatus for Producing a Combined Data Stream and Recovering Therefrom the Respective User Input Stream and at Least One Input Signal.’
GET had accused Sony of infringing on the patent primarily by way of how PlayStation controllers communicate with the console. In this case, that would be adopting a ‘slow varying’ frequency for traditional button inputs, with a higher frequency being implemented for motion-based controls. GET had argued that there weren’t any controllers or devices that could do this until the creation of its patent.
In response, Sony argued that GET wasn’t able to provide any proof that its technology was “structurally equivalent” to any component found in PlayStation devices.
The judge presiding over the case has now fallen in agreement with Sony, thus closing the case and stating that GET had “failed to raise a dispute of fact” and concluding that Sony hadn’t infringed on the company’s patent.
This isn’t the only lawsuit GET has filed against a major gaming hardware manufacturer. A Reuters report details that GET also has an ongoing lawsuit filed against Nintendo concerning the very same patent. While the courts ruled in favor of Nintendo on this one back in 2020, it’s since been reopened as of 2022 and has yet to reach its conclusion.