Immersion has been suing companies over its fancy haptic technology since at least 2004 (check archive), and now it has a new company in its sights. Immersion has accused Valve of infringing its patents with its portable Steam Deck, the Valve Index VR platform, and Steam VR software and games including Half-Life: Alyx, the edge It has been reported.
Immersion wants an injunction against Valve “from the publication, operation, maintenance, testing, and use of the accused handheld and VR devices,” it says in some of the fine statutes, and is seeking damages and royalties as well. She pointed to seven specific patents dating from 2002 to 2016.
If Valve wants to fight this, they have a mountain of precedent to overcome. Sony and Microsoft ended up licensing Immersion’s patents after settling lawsuits, and Apple, Google, Motorola, and Fitbit did the same. Nintendo and Sony use a different form of rumble technology, but both chose to license Immersion’s patents. Valve uses the same type of rumble technology as Nintendo and Sony.
It looks like Immersion didn’t sue Valve for the Steam console, which it killed off in 2019. The Steam Deck seems to have had a lot more success in terms of saleshowever, and In general it was successful With both critics and players.
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