| mrstickball said: I apologize I should of worded it differently - I was on my way out, and was shocked that Microsoft somehow got that wording into the contract, and then Immersion was able to drain Sony of their money. Personally, I think Immersion suing Sony and Microsoft for the whole rumble idea is just dumb. It seems like there are so many companies out there that are sue-happy, waiting to drain Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony's coffers because they can't put out a decent product themselves that makes it to the big time. |
Why I do agree with you regarding the sue happy mentality that so prevalent in our society, in this case however, Immersion do have the patent for force feedback technology and both Microsoft and Sony were using them without license. From what I read (I could be wrong since I am not a lawyer or tatally familiar with this case), the reason for that clause is because Microsoft willing to settle while Sony did not. As a stipulation, as part of the settlement, Microsoft agree to paid but with condition that they now have a "right" to the license. So the future settlement (ie with Sony or any other company) Microsoft in essense would get part of the payment (loyalties). (But Immersion refused to pay thus let to this lawsuit).
It's a very smart move on Microsoft part to get this clause into the agreement. I am sure they realize they would loose this patent dispute so they settle knowing that Sony would loose the case and will have to settle. So Microsoft essentially got rumble tech for $6.0M. Sony sure paid through the nose though.
