Patent Law

Florida News Highlights Sony's Patenting Possibilities

By John Rizvi

       Undergoing a company-wide restructure, Sony is grounding their comeback on one thing--innovation, according to the Central Florida News (December 11, 2007). Sony plays in a fiercely competitive landscape and, in recent years, has fallen behind. CEO Howard Stringer indicates that all that's about to change with the company stepping up the "wow factor" with key innovations. It seems like the right place to start in a field where patented innovation is largely predictive of a company's failure or success.

       Innovation led to Sony's leader status when they all but owned the portable music industry with their Walkman®; however, their competition caught up, and quickly. In a category that measures innovation in months, or even weeks or days, continual reinvention is necessary to keep ahead of the pack. (And, patenting those innovations, as Sony well knows, is even more critical.)

        Sony plans to focus their innovations in flat-panel TVs, networking services for their PlayStation 3, and a music player that uses robotic technology. A reporter at the Central Florida news believes these planned innovations will show that Sony has "recovered from its past financial problems." For Sony's sake, I hope the reporter is right, and I look forward, as always, to hearing more about new and innovative products.

Full post as published by Florida Intellectual Property Law Blog on December 12, 2007 (boomark / email).