Valve is the latest company to be sued by Immersion over its rumble haptic technology. Immersion Corporation has been suing companies over its rumble haptic technology since 2004, and now it has accused Valve of infringing its patents with the Steam Deck handheld, the Valve Index VR platform, Steam VR software, and games like Half-Life: Alyx.
Immersion wants an injunction against Valve “from deploying, operating, maintaining, testing and using the Accused Handheld Instrumentalities and Accused VR Instrumentalities”. It is asking for damages and royalties as well. It cited seven specific patents dating from 2002 to 2016.
Valve uses the same type of rumble tech as Nintendo and Sony. Immersion has already sued both companies and ended up licensing Immersion’s patents. Both Sony and Microsoft also settled lawsuits with Immersion. Apple, Google, Motorola, and Fitbit also did the same. Nintendo and Sony use a different form of rumble tech, but they have still elected to license Immersion’s patents.
It seems like Immersion has not sued Valve for its Steam Controller, which was killed back in 2019. The Steam Deck has generally been a hit with both critics and gamers, and it appears to be a much bigger success in terms of sales.
This news is not the only recent lawsuit for Valve. Another lawsuit filed against Valve accuses the company of collecting data on its Steam platform on users’ playtime, time spent in the app, and games played. Valve allegedly violated the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act. Valve has yet to comment on either lawsuit.
It is always interesting to see who is infringing on patents and how companies react. Immersion Corporation appears to have a firm grip on rumble haptic technology, with many companies having to license their patents to avoid legal action. It is now up to Valve to decide whether they will fight it or not.
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The material in this article is written on the basis of another article.
Ink Alchemist