Days after settling an email-hacking lawsuit with rival camera makers ARRI, Red Digital today sued Sony Corp for patent infringement. The high-tech camera manufacturer’s complaint Tuesday claims that three cameras made by defendants Sony Electronics and Sony Corporation of America “all embody the subject matter claimed in Red’s asserted patents without any license.” The federal court filing adds that “Red is informed and believes and thereupon alleges that the sale of Sony’s unauthorized, infringing cameras has resulted in lost sales, reduced the business and profit of Red, and greatly injured the general reputation of Red.” Alleging two instances of “willful and wanton” patent infringement on technology used in its Red One camera, Red is seeking a court order that its patents are “valid and enforceable” as well as an injunction against Sony’s F65, F55 and F5 cameras to stop their further sale and have them destroyed.
Sourced from Deadline.com
http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/lawsuit-red-digital-cinemas-sony-corp-the-hobbit-cameras/
HDW : It’s a sorry state of affairs when companies take legal action, but it’s also very sad that RED have to admit publicly that the arrival of the F5/F55 has damaged them so much, personally I think RED should take it on the chin and concentrate on making and improving their cameras.
The writing has been on the wall as large sensor cameras have been pouring out of Japan over the last 14 months and Sony had to catch up with the competition at some point.
This sort of publicity and public admission will be far more damaging to RED than the advent of the F5/F55 and remember it’s only this week that Sony product has become commercially available.
RED have had a good run up till now and to contemplate suing a company as big as Sony is a very bold move indeed…not for the faint hearted or those without deep pockets.
In line with the heading, any chance of any part being hospitalized in the battle? (Sorry, couldn’t resist 🙂
HDW : I really need to stop blogging in the wee small hours of the night 😉
Why is it “a sad state of affairs when companies take legal action” and not a “sad state” when companies steal intellectual property to catch up for a lack of competitive offerings. Everyone knows Sony’s on the ropes financially playing catch up on 422/50.
I fully support Red protecting their IP. I’ve said for years now I wish Red would license Redcode RAW.
Maybe this is Red’s only way to do so, though not the preferred way…
I hope Sony loses in court quickly and painfully, and officially becomes the first major manufacturer to license Red’s technology
the proper way.
Similarly, I’d hate for someone to use HDWarrior’s material in their own training videos and profit from it at your expense, only to have to be sued for them to do the right thing.
These things don’t happen by “accident”, certainly not with Sony’s engineers. Looks like Sony has a lot of explaining to do…
Let me moderate my previous comment with a big “IF”, as I haven’t read the patents in detail…
I fully support Red protecting their IP. I’ve said for years now I wish Red would license Redcode RAW.
Maybe this is Red’s only way to do so, though not the preferred way…
I hope Sony loses in court quickly and painfully IF… they actually infringed upon Red’s patents, and would therefore hope Sony would officially become the first major manufacturer to license Red’s technology in the proper way.
Similarly, I’d hate for someone to use HDWarrior’s material in their own training videos and profit from it at your expense, only to have to be sued for them to do the right thing.
These infringements don’t happen by “accident”, certainly not with Sony’s engineers. Looks like Sony has a lot of explaining to do, that is “IF” …
Sony’s on the ropes? I don’t think so… And did anyone see the picture online of what’s inside a REDMAG? http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/2049-red-epic-versus-blackmagic-cinema-camera-part-1-grain-workflow-and-form-factor/
A $79 Toshiba SSD. RED price? $1250… for adding a case and interface.
That’s sad… overcharging on a massive scale.
It’s always been expensive to use proprietary recording mediums on Pro systems (think SxS or P2).
The Sony F5/F55 will have similarly priced mags…the 4K/RAW AXSM cards (for external recording) will probably end up at a similar price point to Redmags, and what are the odds that, once one is cracked open, that’ll have a SSD in it? Plus they’re using SxS pro for internal recording internal formats – and they’re not cheap.
It’s all about stopping 3rd party recording options. Look at the trouble/issues with sdhc cards and various speeds vs systems vs manufactured. I’m sure the BMCC will have issues with preferred SSD’s (which will be the more pricy models).
Sony are following Red (and Arri) in terms of controlling the data acquisition system for their high end machines.
… and yes, they probably all make a good profit. But this is the highest end of the industry, not camcorders or DSLRs and it always has (and always will be) an expensive game at the top end.
An EVF for a Red or F5/55 costs as much as some people want to pay for a full system.
As the process of democratisation has brought technology prices down, people still loose sight of the fact that it’s all about bottom line. RED probably make more from Redmags than any other item… Sony will (in comparative terms) only sell a handful of F5/55’s in comparison to the amount of cheaper/lower-end pro-sumer systems, so it’s all about large profit on higher ends stuff and lower margins (but greater volume) on prosumer.
Back on topic 🙂 – I think RED have the right to go after Sony if they think their patents have been infringed… but equally, I am looking forward to hearing Sony’s rebuttals.
I have a feeling it’ll get settled out of court and we’ll all be kept guessing on the outcome.
If a company makes a news way of doing things and can patent it then they should be allowed to protect that by going to court to prove it.
It’s just not fair to anyone that their ideas or products are ripped off after all the cost to make the original ones.
If that becomes the case no company will bother to invest in new products as it just will not be financially viable for them to do so.
http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-highend/
Sony replies regarding the legal action with Red.