3M sues Sony, Lenovo, and others over laptop batteries

There seems to be few things that 3M doesn't have some sort of patent claim to, and it looks like laptop batteries are no exception, with the company now putting some of those patents to the test, claiming that Sony, Lenovo, and a number of other companies have been using 'em without permission. According to Bloomberg, the newly-filed lawsuit centers on the cathode materials used in the batteries and demands that the U.S. International Trade Commission block all imports of the batteries in question and the laptop computers they're used in. In addition to Sony and Lenovo, the lawsuit also points the finger at CDW, Total Micro Technologies, and Batteries.com, as well as Hitachi and Matsushita, although apparently not for their laptop batteries, with them instead getting on 3M's bad side for the batteries used in their cordless power tools. From the sound of it, the lawsuit doesn't appear to have anything to do with the now infamous problems affecting many of the batteries from the aforementioned companies, with 3M boasting that their technology results in batteries that last longer and are less likely to overheat.

[Mike @ Mar 8th 2007 6:55PM]

Let them win and push fuel cell development by the losers.

[Dave @ Mar 8th 2007 7:06PM]

There needs to be a new law... If you sue someone for patent infringement and loose, your company is forfeit to the one you were suing. That should lessen the stupid lawsuits that overburden the legal system and get rid of the companies who's only purpose is to sue others. 3M may have a case, but I'm sick of seeing the word lawsuit in every other headline.

[Castle @ Mar 8th 2007 8:22PM]

Further failure of the patent system; blanket lawsuits for everything that they think they can sue for. Only people that benefits are lawyers, there needs to be law to stop patent holders from suing every thing under the sun (especially things they didn't contribute to).

This is getting ridiculous.

[CaptSaltyJack @ Mar 8th 2007 10:18PM]

Fuck you, 3M. Go home.

[Iridium @ Mar 8th 2007 11:21PM]

This is frickin ridiculous. My god what ever happenned to a free market. Maybe 3M came up with an idea to use a cathode in a certain way. Maybe Sony cam eup with the same way, maybe a bit different. Sony got a patent in Japan. 3M got a patent here. But wait Sony sold batteries in the United States, that can't be allowed.

IT'S A BATTERY IT BENEFITS ALL PEOPLE WHO USE ELECTORNIC DEVICES. Any universal benefit should not be granted a patent.

I say again, I am patenting driking a liquid. It is a mechanical process that requires a container that must be moved into a precise position to work effectivly. Everyone that takes a drink is violating my patent and owes me money. Hell if immersion can patent vibration through any means. Does that mean that vibrating massage chairs violate thier patent? I bet it does.

Large corporations own so many patents today that is basically impossible for any small company to create anything without being hit with an injunction.

[phigmeta @ Mar 9th 2007 12:24AM]

3M:

We don't make the things you use ....


.... we sue the shit out to the people who do

[Michael @ Mar 9th 2007 2:08AM]

Is there anybody not suing anybody else . . . ever?

[Rob @ Mar 9th 2007 4:29AM]

I agree this is ridiculous.

But I bet 3M would not have sued Lenovo (or basically the ThinkPad brand), if it was still owned by IBM. IBM has WAY to many patents of their own and would have made a very unattractive target.

It is a matter of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction), although in this case IBM has way more bombs to drop.