Today marked the end of the legal fight between Sony Corporation and Agere Systems (now part of LSI Electronics). Agere won the lawsuit, forcing Sony to pay $18.5 million in penalties for infringement on the 5,670,730 patent by Agere. Agere first sued Sony for patent infringement back in March 2006, saying that the massive corporation violated eight of its patents, demanding they be compensated for all.

Sony was cleared of charges of infringement in seven of the eight patents, thanks to a previous licensing agreement with Agere’s former owner Lucent Technologies. 5,670,730 therefore remained the only disputed patent in the case. According to Agere’s abstract, it is a patent that covers ''a protocol for labeling various types of data contained in a music chip.'' The description is vague, but the patent abstract does go into further detail:

A global header located at the very start of memory will specify information needed to successfully decode the content of the music chip. This will include...the necessary bit rate, as well as information pertaining to a specific PAC (Perceptual Audio Coding) algorithm employed in recording audio...each chip will have a section of memory allocated to a table of contents...[which] will include information on play times, song titles, music category and artist...Information from the headers is self-registered or automatically downloaded when a chip is loaded into a player/juke box device. The concept of self-registering general information included within the headers allows a user to select by type of music, artist, etc. for music selections made over a period of time. In addition, the present invention provides a method for segmenting memory in an integrated circuit chip wherein the integrated circuit chip is adapted for use in an audio player and the memory has pre-recorded audio stored therein.

The original filing by Agere accuses Sony of committing “acts of infringement by making, using, selling, and/or offering to sell products...including, but not limited to, various Sony Walkman models, Sony PlayStation Portable, and Sony Memory Stick Duo.”

The jury’s decision was that Sony’s PSP, mylo Personal Communicator and Network Walkman contain intellectual property that commits infringement on Ager’s own patent.

The judge asked whether the jury had seen "clear and convincing evidence that such infringement was willful," and the jury’s reply was affirmative.

Of course for the mammoth, multibillion dollar company $18.5 million is a paltry sum. Nevertheless it’s a moral victory for Agere and a demonstration of the patent system working correctly. Agere’s patent, which was granted in 1997 describes functionality of a particular kind of system, and the jury’s conclusion that Sony infringed on the patent deliberately. Considering the patent system was made among other things to protect small companies and individuals from intellectual property theft by bigger players, one can say that it functioned quite correctly in this instance.