According to the article, the patent was granted in March 2006 – so why wait over a year to file a lawsuit? Blu-ray has been in circulation for long time now.

I can't help but think that Target Technology is after some easy money, and Sony is an easy target right now.

Edit:
hmm… not sure now.  Apparently TT has 2 other pending lawsuits regarding separate, but similar patents for use of alloys in optical disks.
Link to direct article – requires subscription, but found it posted somewhere else.

Case against Sony – Case number 1:2007cv00561 in Indiana Southern District Court.
Any lawyers here?  Is this likely to have any effect on the format wars, or is it business as usual?

Also, Sony started talking about Blu-ray at E3 '05, and started talking about a new disk format even before that. Who knows, maybe Sony came up with the idea but they didn't file the patent in time.

It's a patent game. You see, organizations buy patents on technology that is vaguely defined and which they may never use or implement. When someone else uses it, they watch. If they don't make any money, it'd be pretty pointless to take them to court, no? Ahhh, but when they have made money, then is the time to attack. It's like setting a bear trap and waiting for the right victim to come along.

Seriously, when you thought nothing worse could happen to Sony, it gets sued over Blu-Ray. Hasn't Sony learned enough already? Why Blu-Ray? Why not Blue-Ray? WTF? Does it look cooler without the "e?" No. It looks like a three-year-old child typed it out. Why do they do that? If anything, Sony should have gotten sued for that. Besides that, I see nothing wrong with Blu-Ray, besided the extra $200 price tag on the PS3. It's better than HD-DVD, and the picture is just amazing. Oh, another thing about it is the fact that Blu-Ray movies are practically $40 brand new. WTF?

Agree with Happy, this kind of crap is completely ridiculous. I can't believe the statute of limitations allows for this kind of thing. For years now, it's been known that Blu-ray is Sony's baby. You can't just suddenly swoop in when the kid is already out of kindergarten and demand custody. If a company as big as Sony has publically announced they'll be selling millions of players using your intellectual property, and collecting licensing fees from other companies to use your IP, you need to be on the phone with them immediately to negotiate a deal with them and faxing them a copy of your patent, not serving them with papers years later.

this doesnt even make sense.. Sony has been working on Blu-Ray way before the patent was granted.. the US Patent system sucks... seriously retarded.

No! That's exactly what companies need to do: wait until it gains widespread adoption. I think they are suing ahead of time.  If you're on the phone after Sony has already invested millions on R&D, PR, marketing and manufacturing, that's when you have the chance to hurt them most: Settle or else all those years of planning will be money poured down the drain!

Not that I agree with going to court (always found the US to be too litigious for my tastes) but if what a company is after is money, they'd do well waiting in the sidelines for a bit. 

Why "Wii" and not "Revolution?" Why "Xbox 360"? It's sounds like they've come back to their original idea.

$40 brand new? I don't know where you are from or where you make your purchases, but new Blu-ray and HD-DVDs usually cost below $30

There are actually "shelf" companies out there that simply engage in "submarine" patent practice. They acquire as many "vague" patents as possible (or even specific ones), then go into hiding. They don't operate, never use the patents... and just wait.

10 or so years later, they resurface and sure they hell out of anyone they can. Its a very effective way to make money.

I agree 100% that patents (as they are used today) are completely screwed. They don't benefit anyone - except lawyers - and just make it even harder for smaller companies to compete with the big boys.

They also encourage companies to not actively "check" for patents that are taken... did you know that if in a patent settlement case, it can be shown/proven that you "checked" for relevant patents before you started your tech, the court treats this as "intentionally stealing", and its an automatic "3x" payment, based on whatever the payout is.

I would love to see patents completely scrapped - 100%. This whole "R&D discouragement" theory is a load of BS. The free market is more than capable of dealing with these issues in other ways.

And whoever is running the patent office should be shot. About 99% of existing patents should never have gone through. 

But that's precisely my point, that this is just a big money grab.  Intellectual property in the eyes of the law should be like a libido: Use it or lose it.