Lawyers Gone Wild: Blu-ray Companies Sued Over Alleged Patent Violations
Posted by Tyler Pruitt
closeAuthor: Tyler Pruitt
Name: Tyler Pruitt
Email: tyler@formatwarcentral.com
Site: http://www.tylerpruitt.com
About: As a life long Geek, Tyler is pretty much addicted to anything that has to do with technology. He became hooked on HDTV in early '04, and hasn't looked back since. Tyler is a HD video content addict, and has been since the days of recording HD movies onto D-VHS tapes.
At his day job in the aerospace industry, he is never too far away from the latest FWC related news thanks to Google Reader on the iPhone.See Authors Posts (356) on August 14, 2008
Filed Under: Best Buy, Blu-ray, Format War, Hardware
It looks like another patent holding company has sued someone in order to make some money protect one of the patents the company holds.
The lawsuit alleges the Blu-ray technology violates one of Digital Security Systems Corporation’s patents. Some of the companies included in the lawsuit are: Samsung, Best Buy, Panasonic, Pioneer, Sharp, Phillips.
We are still trying to figure out how Best Buy is at fault in this case, and what about Sony? They might as well throw everyone into the pot.
Related posts:
- Lawyers Gone Wild Pt. II: Sony Sued Again, Guess Why!
- Region Free Blu-ray Modifications
- Best Buy Sunday Ad August 24th 2008
- NPD Report on Player Sales January Week 4 Shows Roughly 2:1 in Favour of Blu-ray Disc
- Best Buy Sunday Ad September 21st 2008
Best Buy makes those cheap ass Blu Ray players, the Insignia line I believe.
Well… Personally I think “Patent Holding Companies” should be illegal. If you don’t USE the patent yourself, you should have a couple years to sell it or you lose it.
If you want to know about a really nasty version of this story, check our what RAMBUS did when they invented the specs for DDR RAM…
@The Guardian –
What a bunch of nonsense. If one invents and patents something they can do what they please with it.
Ah, capitalism @ it’s best. Sony is behind this, no doubt.
Oh and by the way there is a limit on the duration of patents ~17 years. After that it goes to public domain
Correction – Patents expire 20 years from the date of filing with the patent office.
Bill – you wouldn’t say so if you saw what RAMBUS had done. In most cases these people sit quietly and don’t say anything even when they know you’re using their patent, so they can come at you later and go after all the money you’ve been making. RAMBUS went one step farther and actively pushed for their proprietary tech to be put into the DDR spec, without telling the DDR group that it was patented until after they were already manufacturing the chips!
20 years is great for medicine, it’s terrible for anything computer-related.
When one “invents” something, it is their responsibility to do the patent search to make sure they are not infringing on an existing patent. If one uses someone elses patented technology in a device, it is this parties responsibility to ensure an agreement (signed and in writing) is in place with the patent holding company BEFORE proceeding with using the technology.
@The Guardian -