Sony ordered to pay $18.5m in lost patent lawsuit

A lawsuit filed against Sony over two years ago by Agere Systems has finally been settled, according to a Thursday report, with Sony ordered to pay $18.5 million for infringing on eight patents held by Agere. The jury ruled Sony willfully infringed on the patents, which dealt with wireless local area network apparatus that Sony uses in its PSP portable gaming system, Network Walkman and mylo portable Internet device.

Sony reportedly had a deal in place with AT&T and Lucent, Agere's parent company, that gave it the right to use seven of the eight patented technologies, although one of the unlicensed patents became Sony's undoing in the case. The case was first brought to court in July of 2006. Back in 2006, Sony argued the claims, saying Agere obtained their patents improperly and seeking to have them declared invalid. Agere was seeking profits lost due to the infringement in addition to damages amounting to three times the amount of those lost profits.

Agere develops wireless data and public and enterprise networks technologies.

Filed under: industry, gaming, gadgets
Other story tags: AT&T, sony, PSP, walkman, Mylo, Lucent, Agere