Basically, Sony owns a patent that forces you to say the brand name during a commercial break to end said commercial.. it’s from 2019, and it understandably stirred up some controversy back then.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 8 months ago (1 children)

the patent is from 2009 https://patents.google.com/patent/US8246454B2/en

[–] [email protected] 53 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Important context is that companies often just patent shit in case one day it's valuable. Yes IP is stupid, yes capitalism is evil.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago

Only time, when patent trolling is good, so other companies won't be able to use it, unless they shell out a lot of money to Sony.

[–] vankappa 16 points 8 months ago

thanks, even the fact that somebody thought about it, and thought that somebody else could do it before them, it's nightmarish