In July 2006, Agere Systems sued Sony for violating their "wireless local area network apparatus" patent. This week, a jury ruled that Sony willfully infringed upon the patent and used the technology in an unlawful manner in the PSP and other Sony products. As a consequence, Sony has been ordered to pay US$18.5 million to Agere.
Sony had claimed that they had an agreement with AT&T and Lucent for rights to seven of eight of the claimed patents. They made a motion claiming that Augere's patents were improperly obtained, but that was not upheld.
Thanks to PSP Fanboy for the tip.
