Sony's latest lawsuit.
 

Sony Corp., maker of the world's best- selling PlayStation game console, and Toshiba Corp. are being sued by the University of Wisconsin over microprocessors in the device it claims infringe a patent issued to two of its professors.

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the licensing agent for the school, sued Monday in U.S. court in Madison, Wisconsin, over the use of the computer chips in the central processing unit, or "emotion engine,'' of the PlayStation 2 game console. The foundation seeks cash compensation or a court order stopping Sony from using the chips.

Operating profit at Sony's games division fell 91 percent during the second quarter ended Sept. 30, the company reported this week. Competition from Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox console has meant Sony's game division contributed 6.6 percent to group operating profit in the quarter, down from 49 percent a year ago.

"We are aware of the lawsuit,'' Kenichi Fukunaga, a spokesman at Sony game unit Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., said, declining to comment further.

Sony and Toshiba, both of which are based in Tokyo, jointly developed the PlayStation 2's emotion engine.

The university says John D. Wiley, who is the chancellor of the university, and John H. Perepezko, invented a manufacturing technology used to make the chips while the two worked as engineering professors at the school. The foundation is an independent organization that licenses patents issued to university employees, said foundation spokesman Andrew Cohn


--Bloomberg.com

wow....its like a little university vs a giant company... i wonder who will win cuz if those accusations are true then its not like ppl will stop buying the CONSOLES, because its like u only buy 1 console, but u buy like 300 games :-/

Pff what to I care, even is sony stole stuff, I still would buy PS2. They 0wn.

Does it matter? They will just end up settling it outside of court over about 293843 million dollars.

Yeah really, an "undisclosed amount"

HI, i´m new...
just wan´t to say something!
i think sony is kool, I don´tknow if his console wll triumph over the others...
his console has good games... but i think they´re lacking of creativity!

That was....interesting.

And how are they lacking of creativity???

Sony's not a he. It's a she.

the thing is, so every time ps2 sells a cnsole a big portion/everything will go the the REAL makers therefore not giving enough money to ps2 to upgrade there consoles, therefore killing them where they stand....then we will be forced to buy an xbox and play THIER games

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!That would be the end of video gaming as we know it.

this wasn't the first time that sony stole something and sold it calling it "It's a sony".
it was the same thing with the first prototype of the walkman a pretty long time ago somewhere in the UK.
this engineer still tries to sue sony , without success.