Print this article | E-mail this article | Comment on this article

Sony Settles with 3M in Battery Suit

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

July 31, 2007, 11:40 AM

Sony and 3M announced Tuesday they have reached a settlement to end a dispute involving patents related to rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. 3M sued Sony, along with Lenovo, Hitachi and others in March for using cathode materials used inside their batteries.

3M claimed it took 10 years and $700 million to develop the cathode technology, which makes batteries last longer and give off less heat. Under terms of the settlement, Sony Corporation and Sony Electronics receive full licenses to the technology. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Sony had few other options, as 3M had requested that the U.S. International Trade Commission block all imports of the infringing batteries, and any laptops using them.

Add a Comment (5 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

By Latz !

edited Jul 31, 2007 - 10:00 PM

I used to like Sony, in the 80s. Now their products are mediocre if not total junk, but worst of all they're a bunch of greedy F%#&@! a**holes. I used to get retro parts and imported stuff from Lik-Sang all the time, until the Sony jerkoffs went and sued them out of business. I won't even mention the rootkit thing, their questionable business practices or how they treat their own customers like crap. I would rather lick a dead skunks rotten guts off the highway then buy any more Sony products or support that scumbag company.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

edited Jul 31, 2007 - 12:26 PM

Almost everything Sony sucks. I do like the camcorders however.

Everything else it sh!t. Kind of like Dave's A/V system.

http://img409.imageshack...09/1838/image038bf9.jpg

You brought this on yourself you filthy slob.

Score: 0

By SGD

edited Jul 31, 2007 - 1:12 PM

It's really a shame since they used to make great products. My old 32 inch crt xbr trinitron is kick butt. Still works like it right out of the box.

That is too funny.