Company files lawsuit claiming Cell BE infringes on patent
Wednesday 01st August 2007, 01:01:00 PM, written by Carl Bender
Parallel Processing Corporation has filed suit against Sony in Texas' infamous Eastern District Court on claims that the patent for the Cell Broadband Engine architecture infringes on 'Synchronized parallel processing with shared memory,' issued originally to International Parallel Machines in 1991.
While claiming that Sony "are causing irreparable harm and monetary damage" to Parallel Processing Corporation - a new corporate entity seemingly formed for the express purpose of extracting damages - PPC fails to mention any specific infringement in their filing. The patent in question was itself cited by Sony as prior art when their own application was submitted for issuance by the US Patent and Trademark Office, which it obtained in June of this year; both Sony's own lawyers and the PTO did not prior consider Sony's invention as infringing.
For restitution, PPC seeks no less than the destruction of all Cell-equipped devices on the market, on top of monetary damages and lawyers fees.
The implications for the rest of the industry heading into the massively multi-core era if this challenge were to stand are grim, as PPC could use the case precedent to exert design influence and control on the processor industry moving forward.
While claiming that Sony "are causing irreparable harm and monetary damage" to Parallel Processing Corporation - a new corporate entity seemingly formed for the express purpose of extracting damages - PPC fails to mention any specific infringement in their filing. The patent in question was itself cited by Sony as prior art when their own application was submitted for issuance by the US Patent and Trademark Office, which it obtained in June of this year; both Sony's own lawyers and the PTO did not prior consider Sony's invention as infringing.
For restitution, PPC seeks no less than the destruction of all Cell-equipped devices on the market, on top of monetary damages and lawyers fees.
The implications for the rest of the industry heading into the massively multi-core era if this challenge were to stand are grim, as PPC could use the case precedent to exert design influence and control on the processor industry moving forward.
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