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Sony sued over Blu-Ray, again
SONY HAS BEEN sued for a third time over its Blu-Ray technology, this time by an outfit called Orinda Intellectual Properties USA.
The case against Sony Corporation, Sony Electronics Inc, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc and Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc was filed recently in the Texas Eastern District Court.
Orinda claims Sony is infringing on its patent number 5,438,560, which seems to rather generally describe the process of recording and reproducing layered data on to an optical disc. Sounds a lot like writing to any kind of optical media to us.
The patent was originally filed by Hyundai in October 1993 and granted by the US Patent Office in August 1995.
According to the filing, "Orinda has been and will continue to be damaged as a result of Defendants' infringing conduct."
It is seeking a jury trial which it hopes will grant the company a nice cash cow it calls "a reasonable royalty."
In the meantime it's asking for an injunction on the manufacture, sales and distribution of all Blu-ray products, including the PS3 and Nick Farrell's beloved Panasonic DMP-BD30. Unless Sony are stopped Orinda says the "Defendants' infringing conduct will continue unless permanently enjoined by this court."
Both previous attempts to sue Sony over Blu-Ray have been dismissed. µ
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Any lawsuit should automatically be void if the patent holder cannot show that he is producing goods based on the patent.
I have no idea whether or not these clowns are producing anything, and I am certainly not going to defend Sony in any way, but I am increasingly annoyed every time I hear of a new company from out of the blue that declares having patents and sues somebody who is actually producing goods.
To all those patent holders who create nothing but lawyer fees : you can expect nothing but contempt from me.
Next Crayola is going to sue Sony
over the color Blue.
Also, reminds me of WWF.
They existed for how many years
before someone got upset over 
the name ???
Good thing they are doing it to sony, they deserve such unfairness to befall them.
Once again another case of a bunch of lawyers buying a failed company in order to try and sue others for their success. 

This isn't about getting money back to develop the patent, if this Orinda got a billion dollars the only tech to come out of it would be the improvements in Ferrari and Porsche's vehicle management systems. 

This is one of the main reasons the US needs to change its patent system and should not allow the transfer of patents in bankrupcty proceedings, nor allow the transfer within 12 months of a bankruptcy.

As mentioned, the Orinda patent is so vague as to rely on existing patents & principles to work in the first place and then be easily derived from existing technology (which makes it something the patent office should've rejected in the first place). If you can't prouce a working design that IS commerciallized withing a certain period of time, 5years seems reasonable, 13-15+ seems ridiculous, then your ability to sue should be greatly limited too.

Also, to avoid these frivolous lawsuits lawyers should not be allowed to be members of any board/company they represent and should be forced to account for and pay taxes up front for any services rendered. Pro-bono should be for the individual, pro-bono never happens in businesses, there is always a hidden agenda/benefit/back-scratching. Their actions as both lawyers and stockholders creates this searches for lawsuits where they are simpy gambling on enriching themselves at the cost of succesful companies, and has nothing to do with defending or supporting struggling tech.

This is just another case of lawyers trying to make money off of the work of others, and to the detriment of society (no advancement of the patent for the good of society, however adding another impediment to the already struggling BluRay. 
In reading this patent is is rather clear that "prior art" was not fully explored nor investigated. The U.S. Patent Office has been far too tolerable in the approval process, most likely because of a serious shortage of knowledgeable staff to investigate such patents. This patent should be nullified, at once. It is nothing original or very creative. At best it is a natural progression of the then existing technology. Natural progression of a technology is not eligible for a patent according to the US Supreme Court.
I hate American companies who just make very general patents and sit on them while waiting for them to infringe on their patent. Companies should just avoid doing business in America because this bull. I wonder why lawsuits like these aren't seen very often in other countries. Maybe because the Patent office in other countries actually have some intelligent people working there.