Sony declared winner in $500M patent infringement suit

Sony's patent infringement lawsuit from Genuine Enabling Technology (GET) has ended in the PlayStation maker's favor. Per GamesIndustry, the latter sought $500 million in damages.

GET filed the suit in 2017, alleging one of its patents was infringed upon. The '730 patent, 'Method and Apparatus for Producing a Combined Data Stream and Recovering Therefrom the Respective User Input Stream and at Least One Input Signal,' was established in 2001.

It claimed PlayStation consoles communicated with controllers using "slow-varying signals" for button inputs and high-frequency motion signals GET previously developed.

In court, Sony argued GET didn't provide enough evidence to prove a component in its controllers was "structurally equivalent" to diagrams within the patent.

The judge agreed with Sony, stating that GET "failed to raise a dispute of fact." Sony didn't infringe on those patents, the judge said, and the case was subsequently closed.

GET filed a similar suit against Nintendo in 2020, claiming it also infringed on its patents. A judge also sided with Nintendo, but that decision was reversed in 2022, and the case is now ongoing.