Sony Loses 5.1 million Yen in IP Lawsuit

August 19, 2010

A Japanese IP court has ruled against Sony Corp. today in a lawsuit with a former employee who claimed that the company didn't compensate him properly for technology he created that was used in the PlayStation. Japan's Intellectual Property High Court has ordered Sony to pay former employee Hidehiro Kume approximately 5.1 million yen for his invention; "a technology used in PlayStation game consoles."

The decision reverses a lower court decision ruling that rejected Kume's demand. The 58-year old former employee of Sony was seeking 100 million yen. Kume invented a "small optical pickup" used to play and record data on optical discs for the PlayStation sold prior to and during 2003.

Kume expressed his thanks to the court for the decision, which Sony says it will review as it considers an appeal.

"I thank the court for identifying some of my contributions to the company," Kume said at a news conference after his victory in court. "But the company should have appreciated my contributions when I was an employee."

Source: Hard[OCP] by way of Blue's News

Comments

Re: Sony Loses 5.1 million Yen in IP Lawsuit

Submitted by sirdarkat on Fri, 08/20/2010 - 07:49.

 Should really put in parentheses the amount in dollars (or very least pounds) ... 5.1 million yen is JACK.  He won 59732.73 in US Dollars ... just remember the yen doesn't have a decimal point so shift every number they mention two places to the left and that is a good estimate for it in US and UK (used to be better for US not so much since we destroyed our dollar but I wont get into that).

Re: Sony Loses 5.1 million Yen in IP Lawsuit

Submitted by Thad on Thu, 08/19/2010 - 15:17.

Wait wait wait wait wait.

So you're saying that the guy who designed the disc reader for the PS1 and 2 is getting REWARDED for it?

Re: Sony Loses 5.1 million Yen in IP Lawsuit

Submitted by Michael Chandra on Fri, 08/20/2010 - 00:24.

With a number that's prolly somewhere around a year of salary, yes.

 
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