Their lack of a patent for controller vibration prevented Sony from having vibration on Sixaxis - notice that despite all the BS that it interfered with motion sensing, Dualshock 3 came out just a few months after Sony managed to settle the suite with Immersion.
Since there’s no penalty for making a patent and not using it, it’s probably cheaper for Sony to pre-emptively register everything that comes from brainstorming sessions.
Their lack of a patent for controller vibration prevented Sony from having vibration on Sixaxis - notice that despite all the BS that it interfered with motion sensing, Dualshock 3 came out just a few months after Sony managed to settle the suite with Immersion.
Since there’s no penalty for making a patent and not using it, it’s probably cheaper for Sony to pre-emptively register everything that comes from brainstorming sessions.