If you're one of the people who are thinking this should be obvious, then you'll be hard pressed to find someone who'll disagree with you on that assessment. Fujitsu, Hitachi, and Toshiba are all thinking about getting some sort of compensation from Sony as a result of their faulty batteries and the subsequent need to recall a portion of them.

For all those who still haven't heard of the Sony battery problem, this all started with exploding laptops. Specifically, a laptop at a Japanese conference burst into flames. It's been traced back to Sony's battery, which has instigated a lot of security measures to lessen the chances of another accident occurring. As a result of this, different laptop manufacturers have begun to recall Sony batteries that could also be responsible for future accidents.

While it does seem rather fitting for the three laptop companies to request some money back, in the same way their respective consumers are probably going to do, you have to wonder how much hurt Sony can take. In addition to the battery recall, which they expect to lose at least half a billion on, they're also getting some trouble on the gaming side with their PS3 problems. All in all, this also lowers Sony's stocks and total value. While they probably could afford to compensate the affected companies, the steep penalties they'll be incurring from it can also hurt the companies getting compensated in the long run. Still, if there's a way for Sony and the laptop makers to get back on their feet and restore their good name among consumers, we're definitely all for it.