On the Wire | Epic Apple vs. Samsung Deathmatch Wraps Up

People wait in line to get inside for the Apple and Samsung trial during a lunch break at a federal courthouse in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2012.

By Paul Elias

Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A lawyer for Apple said Tuesday that Samsung was having a "crisis of design" after the launch of the iPhone, and executives with the South Korean company were determined to illegally cash in on the success of the revolutionary device.

Samsung's lawyer countered that the technology giant was simply and legally giving consumers what they want: Smart phones with big screens.

On the Wire | Tech titans face off in court over iPhone, iPad

Source: AP Photo/Sascha Schuermann

By Paul Elias | Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Two tech titans will square off in federal court Monday in a closely watched trial over control of the U.S. smartphone and computer tablet markets.

Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co. last year alleging the world's largest technology company's smartphones and computer tablets are illegal knockoffs of its popular iPhone and iPad products. The Cupertino-based company is demanding $2.5 billion in damages, an award that would dwarf the largest patent-related verdict to date.

Did Sony patent a Kinect-style controller?

The picture above is a diagram from a patent filed in October by Sony's Richard Marks (you may remember him as the "genius" behind the PlayStation Eye.)


It was published by the U.S. Patent Office on February 16 as a "User-Driven Three-Dimensional Interactive Gaming Environment" - the word "environment" being the interesting one.


Sony's caught hell before for developing controllers that feature pre-patented tech and this sounds dangerously close to Microsoft's Kinect.


But is it?