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LG Wants PlayStation 3 Banned From US Market
FlorianMueller writes "On Friday LG filed a complaint against Sony with the US International Trade Commission, claiming the PlayStation 3 infringes four Blu-ray Disc patents and demanding a permanent ban of the PS3 (and possibly other products) from the US market. LG, which boasts that it owns 90,000 patents worldwide, appears to take this step in retaliation for a previous Sony complaint about various LG smartphones, which the ITC is already investigating. This is reminiscent of Motorola's infringement action against the Xbox 360 that is part of its wider dispute with Microsoft. In other words, you touch my smartphones and I bomb your game consoles."
More like LG owns some of the patents behind the technology behind it (but not the protocol itself) and are using that is bite back at Sony for their patent infringement charges they are pressing against their phones.
Basically put, Sony should learn "Thoughs who live in glass houses, shouldn't throw stones" They didn't listen and threw something at someone who could return the favor.
I believe that some "genius"in these companies concluded that it is more profitable to sue other companies that actually produce products to sell to someone.
Seriously, it's best to just shoot the heads of these lunatics before this insanity can get worse?
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
In general, being a foreigner, I think the biggest technological problem with the US is their (IMO) clueless and braindead patent office. You can basically patent just about anything and when you find someone other company or individual using it its "We'll sue!".
Of course; trying to reach a compromise might actually result in business deals which can be profitable for both parties, but it would appear as if many US companies seem totally incapable to think or reason beyond the word "lawsuit".
Quite a pathetic sight in my opinion.
It would be fun if a couple of judges decided to act together and ban all the infringing devices...
Immediate ban on XBox, PS3, iPhone, Android Phones, Windows Phones, and so on...
I guess that it'd not take long before all these tech companies start to lobby against flacky patents and the associated lawsuits...
Also very useful at stopping new companies from setting up shop.
If they cough, you sue the crap out of them. They won't have enough Patent Power to fight back and they collapse.
The idea is that both companies hold so many patents that starting an actual war just results in the annihilation of both parties. But then Sony launched a missile. What's LG supposed to do? Not respond?
This reminds me of the Aliens vs Predator posters. "No matter who wins, we lose."
Actually I'd say its a smart move. After all who has more to lose LG, who gets but a tiny fraction of their money from BD players and last I heard their big markets were smart phones and LCD TVs? Or Sony, who has a pretty big chunk of their business tied to the PS3 and who is finally making them at a profit and still needs to catch up to the X360 in terms of sales? If this goes through, even for only a month or two it'll hurt Sony bad with a capital B, whereas banning all LG BD players won't even make a dent in their quarterly reports.
But this to me points out something that is wrong with our current patent system, in that instead of protecting the little guy patents have become WMDs to be trotted out by the megacorps. The worst part about it isn't when the megacorps fight each other like King Kong VS Godzilla, it is how they use them to pretty much insure the field stays amongst themselves. I mean can you even imagine trying to come out with a new graphics card design with all the patents the big three have? Or trying to come up with a new X86 like Cyrix and Winchip did back in the day? If you had less than 100 billion the lawyers would crush you like a bug!
That is why I think the USPTO needs to be a hell of a lot more stingy when it comes to handing out patents, and software patents needs to DIAF. Throughout our history we have always had to "stand on the shoulders of giants" to reach new heights, but with the rise of the multinational corporation those shoulders now have patents up the ying yang. That is why I think once they get up to speed the next big breakthroughs will probably come from India and China, simply because there you'll be able to try new ideas and build upon existing tech without an army of lawyers and a mountain of cash. I wouldn't be surprised if the Chinese just hack in a subset of X86 into those new Dragon CPUs they are working on, giving them the best of ARM and X86 and giving us the finger. After all they can do it, whereas unless you are AMD or Intel you simply can't even try here, the lawyers will bury you.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.