Valve is being sued by Immersion Company for allegedly infringing on seven patents relating to the touch know-how, or haptics, in its Steam Deck and Valve Index {hardware}. Immersion Company, based in 1993, is an organization that had an early historical past within the growth of touchscreen know-how, together with a partnership with Microsoft, however from the 2000s onwards appears to have grow to be an increasing number of litigious: To the extent it has been described as a “patent troll (opens in new tab)“. It claims to personal over 1,650 patents associated to haptics, and prior to now has sued Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and most just lately Meta Platforms.
Immersion Company describes itself as “the main developer and supplier of applied sciences for haptics” and has filed swimsuit in Washington district court docket (opens in new tab). The swimsuit says Valve’s infringed seven of its patents and Immersion is seeking to have it enjoined from additional infringement and, the vital half, “to recuperate an inexpensive royalty for such infringement”.
“Our mental property is related to a lot of a very powerful and cutting-edge methods during which haptic know-how is and will be deployed, and, within the case of AR/VR experiences, haptics is essential to an immersive person expertise,” mentioned Eric Singer, chairman and CEO of Immersion.
“Whereas we’re happy to see that Valve acknowledges the worth of haptics and has adopted our haptic know-how in its handheld online game and AR/VR programs as a part of its effort to generate income streams by the gross sales of {hardware}, video games and different digital property, and commercials, it will be significant for us to guard our enterprise towards infringement of our mental property to protect the investments that we now have made in our know-how,” mentioned Singer.
The criticism asserts infringement of the next patents:
- U.S. Patent No. 7,336,260: “Technique and Equipment for Offering Tactile Sensations”
- U.S. Patent No. 8,749,507: “Techniques and Strategies for Adaptive Interpretation of Enter from a Contact-Delicate Enter Gadget”
- U.S. Patent No. 9,430,042: “Digital Detents Via Vibrotactile Suggestions”
- U.S. Patent No. 9,116,546: “System for Haptically Representing Sensor Enter”
- U.S. Patent No. 10,627,907: “Place Management of a Consumer Enter Factor Related With a Haptic Output Gadget”
- U.S. Patent No. 10,665,067: “Techniques and Strategies for Integrating Haptics Overlay in Augmented Actuality”
- U.S. Patent No. 11,175,738: “Techniques and Strategies for Proximity-Primarily based Haptic Suggestions”
Apparently sufficient, Singer was appointed to his function in January this yr, changing lawyer Francis Jose. On the time Singer issued an announcement (opens in new tab) discussing Immersion’s numerous methods of delivering “shareholder worth” and particularly calls out “our focused litigation technique, together with however not restricted to our current lawsuit towards Meta Platforms”.
It’s price noting that Immersion has loved appreciable success over time. A swimsuit towards Microsoft and Sony within the early 2000s resulted in a giant win, with Microsoft opting to purchase 10% of Immersion to keep away from the combat whereas Sony took the corporate on and misplaced (opens in new tab). It is even been speculated that the dimensions of the loss on this case was what noticed the PlayStation 3 model of the Dualshock pad launch with out rumble.
I’ve requested Valve for remark, and can replace with any response.