Thursday, October 10, 2013

Patent Dispute over Sony’s PlayStation Ends

Case Filed: Mar 27, 2012

Case Closed: Oct 07, 2013

Court: California Northern District Court

Judge: Jon S. Tigar

Case Summary:
An inventor named Benjamin Grobler accused Sony for infringing the patent US6799084 entitled ‘data vending systems’ that was issued to him on Sep 28, 2004 and expiring[i] by Jul 31, 2018. According to the complaint, Grobler is the assignee of the ‘084 patent.

The patent covers data vending systems that allows users to store and mange digital music, video, software, etc. on a variety of electronic devices. The complaint alleged that Sony have directly infringed the patent by offering systems for data vending such as PlayStation Network and indirectly infringed by inducing infringement by its customers' use of such systems. The complaint demands "no event less than a reasonable royalty”, which is quite understandable that money is the primary goal. Grobler asked the Court for a judgment that Sony has infringed, besides a claim for damages and expenses. 

In June, the Court granted Sony’s motion to stay due to Sony’s petition for inter partes review of the patent-in-suit. Later in October, Grobler filed a joint motion, as a result of which the Court granted and ordered the civil action to be dismissed with prejudice and parties to bear their own costs and expenses.

See 3:12-cv-01526 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

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[i] Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents.

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