News

PSP Patent Suit Costs Sony

Jury says company willfully infringed.

A jury this week found that Sony willfully infringed on a patent, a ruling that will cost the PlayStation house $18.5 million.

An East Texas federal jury said Sony willfully infringed on Agere Systems' patent 5,670,730, "Data Protocol and Method for Segmenting Memory for a Music Chip."

The jury said Sony's mylo Personal Communicator, Network Walkman audio players and the PlayStation Portable all infringed on the patent.

Agere Systems originally filed the complaint in 2006.

Sony had filed a counterclaim, stating that the patent did not "comply with one or more of the conditions and requirements of the patent laws of the United States," the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported.