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Sony Sued By University Over PS2 Chip

Posted by simoniker on from the full-recall-expected-soon dept.

Mike Hawk writes "Cry me a river! Sony is being sued over the creation of its 'Emotion Engine' PlayStation 2 chip. The University of Wisconsin (Madison) has filed the suit claiming the "EE Core" violates a 16 year old U-Dub patent. And you guys have been gaming with 16 year old technology the whole time - those PS2 jaggies make perfect sense now..." Since this story broke on Friday, a CNET News article has added a little more information, quoting a University spokesman as saying the patent involves "advanced chipmaking technologies and has been licensed by a number of technology companies", but not Sony or the chip's co-creator, Toshiba.

40 comments

  1. Um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why does the original poster of this article type like he's a brainwashed, consumer fanboy of a system other than the PS2?

    1. Re:Um... by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "Why does the original poster of this article type like he's a brainwashed, consumer fanboy of a system other than the PS2?"

      Probably because fan boys of the PS2 don't like it brought up that the system has a nasty little limitation that causes those jaggies. I imagine it was painful for the people who spent $300 for a PS2, waited for months for it to be available (remember the shortage?), and brought it home to realize that in most cases Dreamcast games looked better.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:Um... by Kris_J · · Score: 1
      Probably because fan boys of the PS2 don't like it brought up that the system has a nasty little limitation that causes those jaggies.
      Just as Xbox owners aren't fans of the opinion that it's an overpriced, underpowered PC and GameCube owners don't often like the relatively small software library and lack of DVD support being pointed out. The point is that the little dig was completely unnecessary.

      (Personally, when I saw the complete lack of pop-ups in Wipeout Fusion I was happy.)

    3. Re:Um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think I was just pointing out that fanboys in general are relatively imature, in that they are wholely owned bitches by the companies that they "support".

    4. Re:Um... by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "The point is that the little dig was completely unnecessary."

      You're right. In terms of good journalistic reporting, it really wasn't in good form. However, the quip was more about how old the patent was (16 years in tech terms is virtually an eternity), not as much a poke at the limitations of the PS2.

      As for my comment, the point of it was that his view of what he was seeing in that post was tainted by annoyance at that limitation. It sounded to him like somebody was a fanboy of another system. The reality is not so clear cut. However, assuming the AC comes from the point of view of being a fan of the PS2, I can see why he'd leap to that conclusion.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    5. Re:Um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      king of like the zombies that say intel desktop processors rock don't like to be reminded of Intel's P4 foibles... just mention RD ram to a P4 supporter and they nearly wet thenselves, mention socket 423 and they burst into flames

  2. Nice Timing for a lawsuit by mrshowtime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Gee, right after Sony sells it's 60 millionth PS2, this University finally figures out that Sony "Stole" their (ancient) technology. Sounds awfully fishy to me.

    --
    "Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
    1. Re:Nice Timing for a lawsuit by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Gee, right after Sony sells it's 60 millionth PS2, this University finally figures out that Sony "Stole" their (ancient) technology. Sounds awfully fishy to me."

      Coincidently, Sony recently changed their manufacturing process to make the systems cheaper. I couldn't tell you if that's what sparked the suit or not, but I can tell you that anything smells fishy when you are missing a good deal of detail like we are right now with this story. It's too vague.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  3. "Good Faith" - uhhuh by Kris_J · · Score: 4, Funny
    "We hope the lawsuit will encourage them to bargain in good faith,"
    How very SCO of you.
  4. Perceived Legitimate Concern by Locky · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This isn't like a soccer mom trying to cash in on frivuolous lawsuit #235 of the week, this is an actual university, and the entire board of directors must have legitimate concern to sue.

    Perhaps they have a case.

    1. Re:Perceived Legitimate Concern by TiggsPanther · · Score: 1

      Perhaps.

      But why have they waited for so long? The PS2's been out for a couple years now, and the advertising/hype about the "Emotion Engine" was circulating way before the console was even released.

      This just seems like another in a long line of "Turn a blind eye until we know how much we can sue them for" infringement suits. If (if!) infringement was involved, why wait until a few years later? Going for them early might not yield as much in damages, but surely infringement is infringement whether they make a profit or a loss from using it.

      I guess it just irritates me that it seems like a lot of companies will only enforce things like copyrights and patents when they can make money for it. Surely if their "intellectual rights" (or whatever) were so important, they'd do anything to protect them even if it's at a loss.

      --
      Tiggs
      "120 chars should be enough for everyone..."
    2. Re:Perceived Legitimate Concern by Random832 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This isn't like a soccer mom trying to cash in on frivuolous lawsuit #235 of the week, this is an actual university, and the entire board of directors must have legitimate concern to sue.

      Translation:
      This is the entire board of directors of an actual university trying to cash in on frivuolous [sic] lawsuit #235 of the week.

      --
      We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.
    3. Re:Perceived Legitimate Concern by toast0 · · Score: 1

      From the news articles, the patent is not on the content of the Emotion Engine, but on how the chip is fabricated. I don't recall Sony ever advertising anything about it's new age fabrication methods...

      Please correct me if i'm wrong

      --
      Need a Catering Connection
    4. Re:Perceived Legitimate Concern by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yea lack of funding.

  5. Offtopic nitpick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Um, "U-Dub" is what people call the University of Washington. I don't recall anyone ever calling it that while at the University of Wisconsin.

    1. Re:Offtopic nitpick by GMontag451 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Maybe a trademark infringement suit is in order.

    2. Re:Offtopic nitpick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      let me guess... you live in washington?

      i wonder what they call the university of wyoming....

  6. Question by Hard_Code · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Uh, why are universities patenting their research? Aren't they supposed to be releasing info for public use?

    That is partially a rhetorical question, and my partial answer is that federal cuts have probably reduced grants/funds to the point that universities must (and indeed they have long since started to) patent and sell their research, sometimes with tacit partnership with industry with specific products in mind, as opposed to being "pure" research.

    I'm not against the public, businesses included, profiting from university research, I'm just sort of skeptical of universities getting patents (anathema to the whole purpose of universities), and then licensing them to a select few that pay enough. Otherwise our universities just become off-site research labs for specific companies (i.e. the ones with the money).

    --

    It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
    1. Re:Question by Hard_Code · · Score: 1

      Duh, my bad! In this case the company, Sony, is foreign, so the argument may not be as applicable.

      --

      It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
    2. Re:Question by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      Otherwise our universities just become off-site research labs for specific companies (i.e. the ones with the money).

      They are. Not all research grants come from the government (heck, even the government does classified work that can't be allowed out).

      People tend to give grants with strings attached. Don't like it? You can push for more NSF/DoD funding (DoD for computer science).

      --
      May we never see th
    3. Re:Question by Random832 · · Score: 1

      People tend to give grants with strings attached.

      Shouldn't, then, they be the ones with the patents? and, research done on money without such strings shouldn't be patented at all... basically (in grandparent post's opinion) a university should never hold a patent for itself

      --
      We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.
    4. Re:Question by bubblewrapgrl · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't know about other schools, but UW-Madison has been patenting the research of professors and other researchers on campus since 1925. There is a private, non-profit organization called the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Basically, they hold patents and license them out. The money that is collected is used to fund the university and other research on campus.

      Check out http://www.warf.ws for more information.

    5. Re:Question by xenocide2 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, NSF does ocasionally offer grants to CS professors. One of my professors is part of the NSF funded Open Source Quality project. Several others have been awarded NSF grants as well. In fact, few have research directly for the DoD. A couple do have grants from popular defense contractors, like Honeywell, and I presume there are some strings attached.

      --
      I Browse at +4 Flamebait

      Open Source Sysadmin

  7. and I GO to the U of Wisc at Madison... by herrvinny · · Score: 1

    *cries how could my college do this to me...

    1. Re:and I GO to the U of Wisc at Madison... by Sayten241 · · Score: 1

      Yeah I go to Madison as well. I guess this is just what happens when we need to let out anger about our football team getting rocked =P

  8. Gamecube... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cmon now stop spreading the BS cowpies. Xbox only has a few decent games, the rest are garbage, same as with the PS2 as well. Now, if you were to look at Nintendo's list of *ALL* current and future gamecube games you would realize the "software library" is not small which PS2 and XBOX fanboys love to spread that pile of BS around.

  9. U-Dub by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    "U-Dub" is University of Washington. University of Wisconsin is "U-Double-U".

    And it's probably The Foundation that's doing this. Those lawyers are hated by most of the university, especially the faculty who's ideas are stolen and exploited. The Foundation made a killing off synthetic BGH. It's actually what started this whole university-patent thing. Before that universities research was to benifit society, not for quick cash.

  10. Patents are way too long. by JMZero · · Score: 1

    In 1820, it may have taken 20 years to get a headstart in fields like cotton ginning and steam-shipping. Now, 20 years is 5 product lifetimes. I think hardware patents should be 5 years, and 3 years for software/business method type patents.

    Companies that truly innovate will still have plenty of time to exploit their advantage in the market (witness Palm or Amazon - you can build a real advantage in a short space of time). Entities that want to sit on patents will be SOL (that's not Sony of Latvia).

    The patent the article concerns, valid or not, should have expired a long time ago.

    --
    Let's not stir that bag of worms...
  11. Playstation 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Playstation 2

  12. So do I by kninja · · Score: 2, Informative

    So do I.

    Our University gets money from things like this, and that is a good thing. If companies didn't have to license patents from WARF, do you think that they would donate money to the university for more research? I'm not optimistic that they would. This is a way to fund more research, which in turn attracts more top talent to Wisconsin (Madtown, I don't know where the U-Dub came from), making it a better school.

    If you work in a lab here and get a patent through warf, the school gets something like 80% and the creator gets 20%. This is another reason that we have some really great professors here, it's like profit sharing.

    WARF originated from a professor adding a vitamin to milk to cure rickets. The school has made so much money from that patent that it has developed into a very good institution, contributing to the world's fight.

    I'm not sure that sony can say the same thing about the playstation 2, especially with all of the productivity the PS2 costs us :)

    1. Re:So do I by herrvinny · · Score: 1

      Little offtopic (sorry), but you want to get a soda or something and discuss this? The alumni association that admins the patents is just near my place. Anyone that lives near Madison, come in.

  13. Wasn't its official nickname... by dafoomie · · Score: 1

    Cheese-Whiz University?

  14. The submitter of this article... by dafoomie · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Is named Mike Hawk? Umm... Think about that for a second. Try saying it out loud. Mike Hawk. Hmm. No, nothing fishy there.

    1. Re:The submitter of this article... by Mike+Hawk · · Score: 1

      Yes, that is the moniker I chose for slashdot. Because it is funny. For me it is a reference to a practical joke played by Consolidated Skateboards when they announced that they had signed Tony Hawk's brother Mike to the team. This actually went largely unnoticed for a while. It still makes me smile. Did it make you smile?

      Your handle there is "dafoomie". This is more credible to you? The other random "leetd00d47" or "potman420" names are? The name Mike Hawk is clearly a joke, and to me a funny one given the historical reference.

      The news story is valid, and actually higher brow than most of the games section stuff, imho. Had it made it to the main slashdot page the discussion over patent law and its application in this case would have become quite heated, as all patent discussions tend to do. So, tell me again what's fishy about Mike Hawk?

    2. Re:The submitter of this article... by dafoomie · · Score: 1

      My name is no more valid than anyones. I'm simply pointing out that you have a name that Bart Simpson would have Moe call out at his bar if it weren't too vulgar. It being funny is the only reason I said anything. The story is higher brow than most of the stuff there, and probably should have made the main page. But a story may have less credibility if its submitted by Seymour Butts or I.P. Freely. Nothing against you personally. I don't personally have a problem with it. But that, combined with your bias in the comment, might make someone think twice about taking it seriously.

    3. Re:The submitter of this article... by Mike+Hawk · · Score: 1

      Bah, cmon, that was all just build up to ask you if there is anything fishy about Mike Hawk. Thats funny.

    4. Re:The submitter of this article... by dafoomie · · Score: 1

      You should have taken it as the compliment that it was then :P

  15. A very common cause by phorm · · Score: 1

    There's a common cause that both large organizations and inviduals share alike when it comes to lawsuits. From soccer mom to university... that common cause is money. And even with a board of directors, the discussion is probably not so much as "do you think we're in the right to sue," as "do you think we'll win/profit?"

    Money is a great motivator in the legal world