Valve gets slapped with a lawsuit from Immersion Corporation, a pioneer firm responsible for the rumble haptic technology since 2004.
The gaming publisher gets sued after Immersion accused it of Steam Deck patent infringement.
Immersion Files Lawsuit Against Valve
Immersion is suing the Steam Deck maker for using its patents, particularly the Valve Index haptics and console-related tech.
According to a report by Engadget, Immersion has sued the Steam Deck maker after accusing it of patent infringement on its Steam VR software, Steam Deck, and even the Valve Index VR platform.
What's more, Immersion is also going after Valve because of violating its agreement in some games, including "Half-Life: Alyx."
To make up for the case, Immersion wants Valve to pay for the damages and royalties, aside from the injunction. The company says that the game publisher has been using it's Accused Handheld Instrumentalities and Accused VR Instrumentalities.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the federal court of Western District of Washington, according to a report by The Verge. Immersion cited the following patents in the incident, including 7,336,260, 8,749,507, 9,430,042, 9,116,546, 10,627,907, 10,665,067, and 11,175,738.
"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," Immersion CEO Eric Singer said in a press release.
According to Gaming On Linux, the company wants Valve to acknowledge its intellectual property, particularly the haptic technology on handheld consoles such as Steam Deck. Immersion says that it's pleased for Valve to use its AR/VR systems as an effective way to generate revenue, but it's still wrong to patent it with no proper license.
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Immersion's Deal With Other Gaming Companies
As for the part of Apple and Google, the two tech giants settled the deal with Immersion smoothly. The same goes for Fitbit and Motorola.
Meanwhile, PS5 maker Sony and Xbox console creator Microsoft acknowledged Immersion's patent portfolio with proper licensing.
Nintendo, on the other hand, has reportedly licensed Immersion tech at present. However, the Japanese gaming corporation escaped the case when it released its Rumble Pak tech for Nintendo 64.
It's surprising that Valve is not settling the matter with Immersion despite the fact that it holds no rights on its individual patents.
If there's a change of heart for the Steam Deck maker, it will settle with Immersion for good. All we know for now is that Valve is launching the "Deckard" as its successor headset. Still, we have no idea when it's going to happen.
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