More bad news for Sony.

So anybody who keeps up with this sort of thing knows that Sony hasn't been doing very well lately,financially speaking.Not to mention all the talks of problems with "Cell" & "Blu Ray" being finalized and ready for production.So the last thing the company needs is more bad news.Unfortunately it looks as though that's what their getting.

If anyone remembers,a while back there was the story about a small company that was responsible for inventing the "rumble" technology that is in all game controllers now.The company was sueing Sony & Microsoft for copyright infringement since both companies were using the tech in their pads without ever asking or buying permission to do so.

Well Microsoft settled out of court with the company and even bought some stock in it.Sony on the other hand,being the hardheaded ass company that they are,fought it.Now I'm not sure what grounds Sony thought they could argue, but apparently it didn't work.There is an artcle on it over at jostiq.com.Here is what it says:

"Just to bring you up to speed: Immersion, a company specializing in haptic technology, in 2003 sued both Sony and Microsoft for patent infringement, claiming both companies used Immersion's intellectual property (IP) in their console's controllers. Microsoft settled out of court (buying a share of Immersion in the process), but Sony fought on. Sony lost, and the judge ruled that Sony must suspend the sale of "Playstation consoles, Dualshock controllers," and a few dozen games, including Vice City, Final Fantasy X, and Metal Gear Solid 2. Sony filed for appeal, and has been allowed to sell all aforementioned products while the decision is under appeal.

The Wall Street Journal this morning reports that a federal judge rejected Sony's appeal and upheld the earlier decision (which also includes a $90.7 million payment by Sony to Immersion). Sony argued that Craig Thorner, a former paid consultant to Immersion, submitted testimony on Sony's behalf. However, US District Judge Claudia Wilken noted that Thorner was an "unreliable" witness, citing "strong evidence" that suggest Thorner's testimony was directly affected by the $150,000 Sony had paid him as "advance royalty" to license Thorner's patents in the future.

It seems very ridiculous that Sony would have to halt production on its flagship console, as well as most of the company's best-selling titles, but that may very well be the case here. Could this be a reason for Sony's (conceptual) "boomerang" PS3 controller? If the PlayStation 3 cannot utilize its force feedback technology from the past, how is this going to affect backwards compatibility? Chalk this up as another issue for Sony, alongside Cell processor issues, Blu-ray issues, delay rumors, and more than a few ad campaigns that have backfired."

It'll be interesting to see this turns out.