I'm assuming this will be thrown out rather soon - but if it isn't, this could be terrible news for Sony. Make a huge black hole in their financials...

http://www.gametab.com/news/916313/

... 

Given its global position as an electronics giant, Sony is quite familiar with patent law. The company is also quite familiar with the potential penalties for running afoul of patent law, as evidenced by the $97 million in damages and interest it had to pay Immersion Corporation in a dispute over the rumble functions in Dual Shock controllers.

While the two companies have since patched things up, Sony opted to leave rumble by the wayside when it was designing the PlayStation 3's motion-sensing Sixaxis controller. The electronics giant couldn't avoid patent headaches entirely, however, as Irvine, California-based Target Technology Company filed suit earlier this month, seeking damages for alleged patent violations relating to the Blu-ray technology used in the system.

The suit, which names Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Pictures, and Sony DADC, claims that products marketed under the Blu-ray name infringe on a patent it owns for reflective layer materials in optical discs. The patent addresses what Target called a need for specific types of silver-based alloys with the advantages (but not the price) of gold. According to the patent, the alloys are also more resistant to corrosion than pure silver. The patent was filed in April of 2004 and granted in March of 2006.

Target is seeking a permanent injunction preventing Sony from violating its patent rights in the future, as well as damages with interest, multiplied due to what it characterizes as deliberate and willful infringement.

Neither Sony representatives nor Target attorneys had returned GameSpot's requests for comment as of press time.

...

Sony will settle out of court. It's going to cost them but I can't possible image this becoming Blu-Ray's demise or something like that, heh.

It will be an interesting one - and very high profile. I couldn't imagine an injunction going ahead, but you could imagine what would happen if one was enforced.

A injunction won't happen because the sueing company has to put up money to cover the possible profits lost if they lose. It is easier to just settle without haveing to put up that money. I believe something similar happened with Blackberrys.

Ahh the time honored get rich quick scheme, sue.

no actually, the get rich quick scheme s steal, the lawsuit is to recoup losses due to theft

Yahh iam sure they searched through the billions of patents just to find that specific one and steal it.

Wouldn't that mean Sony would have to pay them since they would have to post a huge negative number??

Seriously tho, what were they actually patenting? I wonder if I can patent

 "a device that uses Material to do Something"

Definitions:

Material = Anything falling into the Mineral group (i.e. Animal, Vegitable, Mineral)

Something = Anything

Patent law is amazingly screwed up and needs to be fixed ... Beyond that though ...

Target will attempt to get an injunction in order to force Sony to settle, Sony will attempt to drag the process out for as long as possible in an attempt to hurt Target ...

These companies are pissing me off. If they know that another company is infringing on their patents, why do they wait so long to take it to court? I'm just curious if this will amke it to court. Nintendo and Microsoft also have pending lawsuits, of course not over blu-ray, rather, the way they designed their respected controllers.

All these lawsuits are God damn asinine.