Hey, that was my idea!

In English, you ask? Well, basically, Lucent insisted it had an exclusive patent on the type of super-sensitive joysticks that react very precisely to your thumb's touch (your character may walk or run, for example, based on how strongly you're pressing down on the stick) you've been seeing on most game consoles since 2001.

Lucent had even named Sony in the original lawsuit but eventually removed it from the list of the accused, without ever really explaining why.

I don't know exactly what happened in this specific case, and it's unlikely anything more will be uncovered, since it will never go to trial.

But here's the thing about an industry as technologically driven as the one I write about every week here: ideas are bound to get borrowed, sometimes improved upon by a rival company, sometimes not. Pardon the pun, but it's just part of the game, and unless your rival tangibly stole specific design docs from your company's hard drives, you've got no business crying foul.

Most frequently, this indeed does happen with controller interfaces. Consider this: in 1995, when Sony first threw itself into the ring with the original Playstation, its controllers suspiciously resembled Nintendo's old SNES pads. A year later, Nintendo released the N64. It was the first game console to include a joystick to make 3-d movement easier. Later, Nintendo released an accessory called the "Rumble Pak," a small device one could attach to N64 controllers that offered vibratory feedback. Machine gun fire, car crashes, or sword strikes on-screen would result in a shake of the controller in your hands.

A year later, Sony released new controllers for the Playstation, calling them Dualshock. You guessed it, the controllers had two joysticks each, and a built-in rumble capability with no need for an extra attachment.

Did Nintendo sue? They didn't bother. Instead, they copied the two-joystick and built-in rumble design for the controller on their next console, the Gamecube, in 2001. Microsoft did the same thing when they marketed the X-Box (although their first controllers were comically huge).

With the current success of the Wii, in fact, I would be very surprised if the next Sony and Microsoft consoles did not revolve around motion control of some sort.

And, again, I'd be very surprised if Nintendo tried to sue. In fact, just today, word leaked out the big N is encouraging developers to try making non-game applications for its upcoming update to the portable DS system, the DSi. These apps could then be sold through that console's new online store. Hmm, sounds like they're trying to take a bite out of someone else's Apple, no? Hopefully they won't phone it in.