Sony patents PlayStation controller that could accept tap-to-pay from phones and credit cards

[u/Nullhitter]

https://www.techspot.com/news/113988-sony-patent-shows-playstation-controller-could-accept-tap.html

[u/878Vikings]

How this is patentable? Card readers and controllers already exist. Mashing them together shouldn't be something that can be owned by a single company. 

[u/Derigiberble → u/878Vikings]

Anyone* can file a patent application for anything, a nd that's all this is - an application, not a patent. 

It still needs to be examined, which will take a couple years. As part of that what it covers (and what you'd have to do to get accused of violating it) will very likely be narrowed pretty significantly, but the description will largely stay the same. 

Outside of IP news outlets stories about patent stuff are usually pretty lacking, and tech patent news stories in particular are almost uniformly garbage because the writers focus on doom and gloom excerpts from the description and ignore the claims (which define what is actually covered, when an actual patent is issued). 

• The only exception is employees of the patent office.