An East Texas federal jury found that Sony Corporation willfully infringed a patented technology used for its portable PlayStation and other electronics and found that $18.5 million should be paid in compensation. Agere Systems, Inc. (now part of LSI), a US corporation with offices in Texas, filed a lawsuit against Sony in March 2006. The trial, which began last week in U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Everingham’s court in Marshall, ended last Monday with the jury’s verdict.
The jurors found that Sony willfully infringed on a patent owned by Agere Systems used in Sony’s “mylo Personal Communicators,” “network Walkman audio players” and “PlayStation Portable.” The jury found that $18.5 million would reasonably compensate the plaintiff for the infringement, according to the jury verdict.
The patent, entitled “Data Protocol and Method for Segmenting Memory for a Music Chip,” was issued in 1997 and is owned by Agere Systems, according to the lawsuit.
“Defendants have committed acts of infringement by making, using, selling and/or offering to sell products within the Unites States, and/or importing products into the United States, including various Sony Walkman models, Sony PlayStation Portable and Sony Memory Stick Duo,” the lawsuit stated.
Sony denied the allegations that it infringed on the claims of the patent and denied that the patent was legally issued to Agere Systems. Sony filed a counterclaim of non-infringement against Agere Systems and claimed the patent was invalid for “failure to comply with one or more of the conditions and requirements of the patent laws of the United States.”
Sony’s claim asked that the patent infringement lawsuit filed by Agere Systems be dismissed and that the patent be declared invalid, according to the answer and counterclaim filed by Sony. Dozens of lawyers are listed in court documents as representing the two parties. Local attorneys involved in the lawsuit were Calvin Capshaw, of Longview, representing Agere Systems, and Longview attorney Melvin R. Wilcox III, representing Sony.
Article courtesy of the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
