May 25 (Reuters) - Nikon Corp said on Wednesday it has filed a patent infringement suit against Japan's Sigma Corp in Tokyo district court over the manufacture and sale of interchangeable lenses with vibration reduction for single lens reflex cameras.

Nikon said it was seeking about 12.6 billion yen (P6.69 billion) in damages in the patent suit. (P1 = 1.88491217 Japanese Yen)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/nikon-idUSL3E7GP11H20110525

I just read about this from the other website. Sigma has taken a big slice of the pie in the sales of lenses since their lenses have become a more suitable alternate to the Nikon and Canon users. If they don't do it right, they will get stung and that's a lot of money that we are talking about here.

http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2073768/nikon-sues-sigma-lens-patent

If it is true then sigma should pay up. Research and development ain't cheap.

I don't think Nikon will win :lol: but we'll never know :D

Most third party lens manufacturer I believe reverse engineers so that probably one point in the law suit...

3rd party manufacturers aren't new though, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, Vivitar, etc have all been big 3rd party players for quite some time, why now?

I'm not saying the case has no basis, but the entire business structure of these companies are to manufacture reverse-engineered products of these major companies and they've been doing this for decades legally... What's different all of a sudden for Nikon to file a suit?

With the amount of people pixel peeping and how flaws get magnified like wildfire through modern-day grapevine (aka internet forums), these 3rd party offerings seem to have a lesser grip on the higher-end optics and seem to be cashing in more frequently on cheaper product lines (smaller margins) to begin with...

I'm just curious.

Dave I believe this has to do with Nikon's VR being copied for Sigma's OS. Reverse engineering the communication protocols is one thing but OS being a ript off of VR is another.

I expect a settlement.

BTW, how did Nikon find out about it? Did they also open up a sigma lens and see what makes their OS tick???

question is why just Sigma? Is it because they have the bigger piece of the pie compared to tamron, tokina, etc? How about Canon? whether its VR, OS, VC or IS, if Nikon owns the patent for it then they can also sue Canon. Or they already settled about it?

"There are a lot of ways to skin a cat".

In this instance Sigma appears to have copied without compensating Nikon.

Canon does their IS differently in the same manner Pentax their image stabilization differently. So does Sony and the other makers.

If there are any copying it appears it is licensed.

I guess Nikon reverse engineered the Sigmas that are based on reverse engineered Nikons and found enough similarities and proof to warrant a lawsuit.

Too bad for Sigma. I really like their unorthodox lens line-up. Hope they'll be able to bounce back if they lose the lawsuit. :(

no wonder Sigma lenses tend to work much better with Nikon cameras according to most people :lol: