Sony's Blu-ray sued over disc-coating patent
- May 25, 2007 00:00 AM PST
A California company has filed a lawsuit alleging that Sony's method of coating optical discs infringes upon a patent involving silver-based metal alloys.
By Eugene Huang
It seems that Sony is once again on the receiving end of a lawsuit involving patent infringement. According to a recent report from IPLaw360, three divisions of Sony Corp. were named as defendants in a suit filed last Wednesday, and will be brought to court over the technology behind the creation of the company's Blu-ray discs.
Irvine, CA-based Target Technology Co. LLC alleges that Sony has directly infringed on a patent for an invention originally issued on March 28th, 2006. The technology behind this patent involves coating optical discs with a thin film of silver-based alloy, which makes them more reflective and less susceptible to corrosion. Target Technology founder Han Nee claims to have personally developed this technology, which is currently in use with the majority of DVDs in production today.
Target's patent in this particular case, entitled "metal alloys for the reflective or the semi-reflective layer of an optical storage medium", has been filed under U.S. Patent Number 7,018,696.
The suit, which asks for damages and an injunction to prevent Sony from infringing on the patent further, has so far named three Sony subsidiaries as defendants: Sony DADC U.S. Inc., Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., and Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. A Sony spokeswoman declined to offer a statement on the grounds that the company does not comment on pending litigation.
This is the second high-profile case in recent memory involving patent infringement related to gaming technology. In 2002, Immersion Corp. brought both Sony and Microsoft to court due to infringements on the company's touch-feedback technology. Sony and Immersion have since agreed to a settlement earlier this year.
Target is also involved with two other pending lawsuits in the federal court systems in New York and California. According to IPLaw360's report, the defendants in those suits are Williams Advanced Materials Inc. and its disc-manufacturing customers, who have allegedly infringed on ten different patents.
