Advertisement
Sony has emerged victorious in a legal battle initiated by Genuine Enabling Technology (GET), alleging that the PlayStation manufacturer violated one of its controller technology patents. The lawsuit, initiated in 2017, targeted Sony for allegedly infringing on a patent titled ‘Method and Apparatus for Producing a Combined Data Stream and Recovering Therefrom the Respective User Input Stream and at Least One Input Signal.’
GET sought significant damages of $500 million (£395 million), accusing Sony of infringing on the patent through the communication method between PlayStation controllers and the console. Specifically, GET claimed that Sony utilized a ‘slow varying’ frequency for traditional button inputs and a higher frequency for motion-based controls, a technique allegedly covered by their patent.
Sony countered by arguing that GET failed to demonstrate any structural equivalence between their technology and any component of PlayStation devices. The court sided with Sony, ruling that GET did not present evidence to dispute this fact, leading to the dismissal of the case.
This legal dispute is not the only one involving GET and major gaming hardware manufacturers. GET also has an ongoing lawsuit against Nintendo regarding the same patent. Although Nintendo initially prevailed in court in 2020, the case was reopened in 2022 and remains unresolved.