From Donkey's mail bag

Do you think that the Sony – Immersion litigation will have any impact on the Hynix – Rambus litigation?

Others, more astute than I, have shared their thoughts with me regarding this topic. As follows is an interesting and brief email I received.

I think the article by SmartMoney is the best article outlining what led to Sony’s debacle. Microsoft, instead of gambling in court on the outcome when they got sued, settled with Immersion for a little under twenty million while Sony chose to fight it out in court and lost big time.

Seeing how bad Sony fared when they lost, I think puts to rest any concerns that the IFX settlement will preclude RMBS from putting the screws into MU and Hynix royally - as it is clear Sony is paying at lot more than Microsoft did to settle and will be continuing to pay and pay up the nose for every PS2 and game they sell with the feedback controller feature.

In a way, this might be really good for RMBS, and I mean really good since you know MU and Hynix and their lawyers couldn’t miss seeing this. And at this point, if you where MU or Hynix, you have to be thinking - what would happen to us if we ended up in the same predicament as Sony? Not a pleasant thought to say the least for them. It just might spur them to come to the settlement table and make a serious effort to settle.

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Lawrence Carrel wrote an article about the Sony – Immersion matter that was published March 28, 2005, at yahoo.smartmoney.com. He wrote:

"Everything is on the table," says RHK's Azuma. "But it seems more like the court is firing a very loud shot across Sony's bow with the injunction. It's an interesting way of saying you should go settle this." (Azuma doesn't own shares of Immersion or Sony; RHK doesn't do business with either company.)

Read Mr. Carrel’s article here.

Thank you for asking.

Hat tip to the author of the email - who wishes to remain anonymous.