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Sony pays millions to inventor in Walkman dispute

updated 04:00 pm EDT, Mon June 7, 2004

Sony Walkman dispute


Sony has paid several million euros to a German inventor who . After more than 20 years of court battles, 59-year-old Andreas Pavel agreed to a settlement that, in return for the payment, suspends all legal procedures he had set in motion against the company. avel, extremely proud of his victory, said he now plans to approach other manufacturers of Walkman-like products, including Apple. Apple's iPod is to viewed some extent as the digital successor of the Walkman.


by MacNN Staff

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  1. Faizon318

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2004

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    06/07, 05:48pm | report spam | Reply |

    I dont think

    this guy in the end got allot of money ?

  1. swatson

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    Joined: Nov 2000

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    06/07, 06:20pm | report spam | Reply |

    several million euros

    "several million euros" sounds like a lot to me.
    "A million euros equals $1.23 million"

    several implies sevenish so that is over eight million U.S. dollars

    From the article:
    "Pavel also has more assets up his sleeve. In 1989, he filed a patent application in the United States for a technology combining the functions of a pocket audio player and a mobile phone"

    Patent laws have seriously gotten out of hand.

    How can you patent the combination of two other products that you haven't created? It is like me patenting the idea of wearing a jacket and pants together as something called a "suit." I am going to sue everyone from Brooks Brothers to Burilington Coat Factory.

    $$$

  1. dthree

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 1999

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    06/08, 09:54am | report spam | Reply |

    well...

    I see the point of the sony settlement. Sony's founder even credits the guy with the idea of the walkman. Going after MP3-player makers is stupid though. Portable music players have been in the public eye for for 25 years now. He can't say that Apple or creative labs "stole" his idea because all they did is bring an existing, established idea into the digital age.

    Regarding the phone/music player, you actually can patent combinations of ideas that were not invented by you. You can also patent improvements to existing inventions. But, they have to be non-obvious ideas. For example, putting 2 headphone jacks in a walkman is an obvious idea. (So is wearing a jacket with matching pants.) In 1989, combining a mobile phone and a portable music player was a non-obvious idea.

    I am really surprised that the portable mp3 player itself is not patented. It seems to abide by the idea of an improvement to an existing invention (walkman/discman) that is non-obvious. Where, for example, the microsoft patent of "multiple button presses" is not only obvious, it has plenty of prior art.

    Another thing I wonder about is if sony filed walkman patents and if they attacked other portable music player manufacturers. There were plenty of them, some were better than sony, and many were worse. Sony stayed at the top of that market beacuse of the consistent quality, not because they sued all thier competitors out of that business.

  1. GORDYmac

    Mac Elite

    Joined: Dec 1999

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    06/08, 09:54am | report spam | Reply |

    Sony gave him fuel...

    ...to fight the iPod fire...

    Smart move.

  1. fsvilim

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    Joined: Jun 2004

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    06/08, 06:22pm | report spam | Reply |

    No Way

    My understanding is that patents only apply for 17 years. After that, anybody can make the thing without infringing. This is where generic drugs come from. Sony infringed on this guys idea because they made the walkman within the 17 year period. 1989 means the patent expired in 1996, way before the ipod came into existence. I agree that law-suit business models suck and should be outlawed.

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