Immersion Corporation have a history of taking on companies and winning, with Valve being the latest in the firing line over Immersion's patents. The patents involved are 7,336,260, 8,749,507, 9,430,042, 9,116,546, 10,627,907, 10,665,067, and 11,175,738.
They're pretty notorious for this going after Xiaomi, Meta (Facebook), Sony, Microsoft and more in the past. Most companies just seem to partner up with them now and license their stuff.
From the press release:
“Immersion and its employees have worked diligently for almost 30 years to invent innovative haptic technologies that allow people to use their sense of touch to engage with products and experience the digital world around them. Our intellectual property is relevant to many of the most important and cutting-edge ways in which haptic technology is and can be deployed, and, in the case of AR/VR experiences, haptics is crucial to an immersive user experience,” said Eric Singer, Chairman and CEO.
“While we are pleased to see that Valve recognizes the value of haptics and has adopted our haptic technology in its handheld video game and AR/VR systems as part of its effort to generate revenue streams through the sales of hardware, games and other virtual assets, and advertisements, it is important for us to protect our business against infringement of our intellectual property to preserve the investments that we have made in our technology,” added Mr. Singer. “We must ensure that our intellectual property is recognized as a necessary feature in the handheld video game and emerging AR/VR markets, even when litigation becomes necessary.”
I have reached out to Valve Press, to see if they have any statement to share on this.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Edit: ah back paddles it was. So probably a different company.
Last edited by Julius on 17 May 2023 at 11:59 am UTC
that seems like an familiar situation, microsoft funding someone else to sue...
https://youtu.be/u4kMUk7sCUs?t=709
Last edited by elmapul on 17 May 2023 at 12:31 pm UTC
Mohandevir May 17, 2023
Quoting: elmapuli know that will sound like conspiration theory, but.. who else thinks microsoft is behind this?
that seems like an familiar situation, microsoft funding someone else to sue...
https://youtu.be/u4kMUk7sCUs?t=709
And it happens days after the ROG Ally launch... Mmmm...
Not really versed in patent stuff, but most of these are just concept with no actual design... Like putting words on already existing concepts and turning them into patents... For trolling.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 17 May 2023 at 12:58 pm UTC
Quoting: elmapuli know that will sound like conspiration theory, but.. who else thinks microsoft is behind this?Microsoft have helped out with legal attacks against their rivals before, but it's not really necessary in this case: Immersion are plenty aggressive already. Sony tried to front out that "customers don't really want rumble anyway" with the first PS3 controllers because they were being sued by Immersion, before ultimately caving. At most it would take "that Steam Deck is doing quite well" to some Immersion executive.
that seems like an familiar situation, microsoft funding someone else to sue...
gaboversta May 17, 2023
I guess that might explain why they sued now. They might be trying to squeeze a bit more out of them before they finally lose them.
The newer ones seem to be mostly related to VR and AR, and seem to be mostly software rather than hardware? Reading patents is such a pain in the ass, they seem to be made to deliberately obscure how the supposed invention is designed, the opposite of what patents were meant to do.
Last edited by Aeder on 17 May 2023 at 2:06 pm UTC
StalePopcorn May 17, 2023
You can't poop without being sued.
Quoting: FurysparkRegardless of what this may or may not entail, there is nothing you can do or say to me that makes me believe patents and copyright aren't the love children of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong.
IDK. Copyright ils definitely way too long, and it's absurd that it outlasts patents.
Patents on the other hand, are quite interesting, though they have been subverted with time (as with anything when lawyers get involved). They offer companies to publish their trade secrets against time-limited exclusivity. Sounds like a good deal, as it avoids "well, that is something only company X knew how to do, but they went belly up 50 years ago" situations. Also, you need to pay (more and more with time) to extend them, up to 20 years.
I'm looking into patenting an electronics circuit myself (PhD results), which is quite innovative. If the patent sale or licensing could give me a few funds to pursue more research, I'd be happy with that. In this situation, I see the patent system as "outsourcing R&D".
I'm a bit sad that you need a lawyer to draft them up though, that makes patents expensive to do for individuals like me (yeah, patenting through my lab is... complicated, and I'm not employed anymore anyway).
Also, most companies take the approach of "describing as little as you can", which is against the spirit.
And then there's patent trolls and patents of little substance. You're not supposed to be able to patent an idea, and I believe patents to last way too long for software, where time-to-market is much, much shorter than, say, the 5-10 years it generally takes in electronics or other industrial domains (not even counting the time to obtain funding if you are starting a product from scratch as a startup).
I can't really judge for this situation, maybe their claims are legitimate? I'd have to read the patents :|
Last edited by MayeulC on 17 May 2023 at 2:22 pm UTC
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