Valve has lost a patent lawsuit over the Steam Controller to the tune of $4 million — and it could have to pay out even more based on the court's decision.
Goes to show you that the patent system is extremely flawed. Should not be able to be a patent without a working prototype at least. If you're to lazy, not intelligent, or creative enough to take your idea from a scribble on some paper to an actual somewhat working product, you should not be allowed a patent.
Most that file patent law suits like these are just con artist looking for the quick easy buck. If these losers spent half as much energy following through on these supposed patents they would probably make more than they do from these lawsuits considering their lawyer is the bigger winner after their cut.
This isn't really a patent troll. They warned Valve ahead of time to change their design because it was infringing their patent. Valve released the controller anyway.
Patent trolls don't warn companies, they just sit and wait.
Clearly someone didn't read the article. They aren't patent trolls if they "warned," Steam before hand that they may potentially be infringing on their patent well before the controller was released for sale. Then again, it's no surprise the average IQ of comments here is just barely room temperature.
Ironburg Inventions is a subsidiary of Corsair, which also owns Scuf. Hardly a patent troll when they have had the design on the market for many years.
Let's see if this new controller they are working on infringes on another patent Ironbug warned Valve about the controller potentially infringing on the patent yet they still sold it. That right there shows that Valve knew and still moved a head to release it so they are at fault for this one.
Read the patent and look at the pictures... The patent has two analog sticks and 1 track pad on the left side. Vavle's controller has 2 track pads and an analog stick. The pictures on the patent look like that were made by a 10 year old trying to draw a controller. The track pad and analog sticks as like the same size in the troll's patent and look exactly the same... https://patents.google.com/...
Part of that quality patent summary: "The present invention provides a hand held controller for a video game console having a hard outer case and a plurality of controls located on the front and top edge of the controller. The controller is shaped to be held in both hands of the user such that the user's thumbs are positioned to operate controls located on the front of the controller and the user's index fingers are positioned to operate controls located on the top edge of the controller. The controller further includes one or more additional controls located on the back of the controller in a position to be operated by the user's other fingers.
In one embodiment, each additional control is an elongate member which is inherently resilient and flexible such that it can be displaced by a user to activate control function.
Preferably, each elongate member is mounted within a respective recess located in the case of the controller.
Preferably, each elongate member comprises an outermost surface which is disposed in close proximity to the outermost surface of the controller such that the user's finger may be received in said respective recess.
Preferably, each elongate member has a thickness less than 10 mm thick, more preferably less than 5 mm thick, and most desirably between 1 mm and 3 mm."
Ok kid go back to Epic, kiss their rear ends, and keep believing all the propaganda they are feeding simps like you. They only sold slightly less than half their souls to Tencent and we all know the Chinese companies are the symbol for honesty and the most humanitarian in the world with everyone's best interest in mind? Right?
It's probably just seen as part of the cost of doing business, they're the most profitable American company per employee, I doubt they will have any issue paying it.
Not the first time this type of lawsuit happened. 4 million is peanuts compared to the Immersion vs Sony patent lawsuit where Sony loss and had to pay 97 million plus licensing fees for prior years totalling 53 million. They had to remove the force feedback from the PS3 during the early years until they made an agreement with Immersion. I still have one of those non-force feedback controllers (because "tilt" was the future haha) . MS was sued too, but settled out of court and actually purchased 10% shares of Immersion lol. What that meant was when Immersion won the lawsuit against Sony, MS benefited too
That's business for you. Oftentimes, if a company can gain more than the damages they will have to pay in lawsuits, they will do it anyways. At least in Valve's case, no one's life is in any danger. I've heard of cases of car manufacturers who wouldn't implement safety recalls because it would be cheaper for them to just pay off any lawsuits that come their way. Never let it be said that corporations aren't the biggest sadists.
gotta love those patent trolls, invent something in a drawing and start suing people, scum
Let's see if this new controller they are working on infringes on another patent Ironbug warned Valve about the controller potentially infringing on the patent yet they still sold it. That right there shows that Valve knew and still moved a head to release it so they are at fault for this one.
Valve suck balls, they treat their userbase on Steam like crap with their junk policies
i mean, they've been warned ahead of their release of the controller.
but i feel like 4 mio. is like pocketchange to them at this point.
Not the first time this type of lawsuit happened. 4 million is peanuts compared to the Immersion vs Sony patent lawsuit where Sony loss and had to pay 97 million plus licensing fees for prior years totalling 53 million. They had to remove the force feedback from the PS3 during the early years until they made an agreement with Immersion. I still have one of those non-force feedback controllers (because "tilt" was the future haha) . MS was sued too, but settled out of court and actually purchased 10% shares of Immersion lol. What that meant was when Immersion won the lawsuit against Sony, MS benefited too