Report: Sony Ordered To Pay Ex-Worker For PlayStation-Related Invention

Japan's Intellectual Property High Court ordered Sony to pay a former employee 5.1 million yen ($60,000) for the company's use of his optical technology invention in PlayStation consoles, according to a report on iStockAnalyst. ''I thank the court for identifying some of my contributions to the company. But the company should have appreciated my contributions when I was an employee," said 58-year-old inventor Hidehiro Kume. He was seeking 100 million yen ($1.2 million) in the dispute, and accused Sony of misappropriating his invention of a small optical pickup used to play and record data on optical discs. The decision this week reversed a 2003 lower court ruling that rejected Kume's original complaint. The report said that Sony regretted the court's decision and is evaluating any possible further actions. The reported $60,000 suit is small change compared to other PlayStation-related lawsuits that have emerged in recent months. For example, plaintiffs filed separate suits against Sony Computer Entertainment America that would each amount to over $5 million: One group sued SCEA for disabling the PS3's "Other OS" option, another named SCEA and Square Enix as defendants, claiming Final Fantasy XIII damaged PS3 hardware.