{"id":184416,"date":"2021-02-03T13:50:30","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T13:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gamerant.com\/valve-loses-4-million-steam-controller-patent-infringement-verdict\/"},"modified":"2021-02-03T13:50:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T13:50:30","slug":"valve-loses-4-million-in-steam-controller-patent-infringement-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2021\/02\/03\/valve-loses-4-million-in-steam-controller-patent-infringement-verdict\/","title":{"rendered":"Valve Loses $4 Million in Steam Controller Patent Infringement Verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In late January 2021, Judge Thomas Zilly of the Western District of Washington began to hear the case against Valve<\/strong>, brought by plaintiff Ironburg Inventions for infringing their patent<\/a> on rear-facing buttons on a game controller. The verdict for the case, the first ever patent jury trial to be heard remotely due to coronavirus restrictions, was handed down on February 1.<\/p>\n

Despite Valve\u2019s<\/a> insistence that it had not infringed on any patents or intellectual property, the jury decided otherwise and ordered the company to pay $4 million in damages to Ironburg. The plaintiff\u2019s lawyer, Robert Becker, had argued that Valve\u2019s actions were akin to the Biblical story of David and Goliath. \u201cGoliath does what Goliath wants to do,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Valve, Game Publishers Fined for Breaching Antitrust Rules<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Back in 2014, a prototype of Valve\u2019s Steam Controller was demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES<\/a>. The controller featured rear-side controls, and Ironburg Inventions alerted the games industry giant that the feature had already been patented. The patent specifically added two buttons or triggers to the back of a conventional game controller that would be operated by the user\u2019s middle fingers.<\/p>\n

Microsoft licensed the patent from Ironburg for use on its Xbox Elite controllers, which debuted for Xbox One consoles and Windows 10 PCs in 2015. Valve, on the other hand, continued with the development of the Steam Controller and launched it in November 2015 without having acquired a license for the rear buttons. The company went on to reportedly sell 1.6 million units before the\u00a0Steam Controller was discontinued in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Valve\u2019s lawyer, Trent Webb, maintained that the features of the Steam Controller did not match those outlined in Ironburg\u2019s patent and therefore did not infringe on that company\u2019s design. The plaintiff\u2019s claims would be disproven once jurors saw with their own eyes and felt with their own hands the differences between the Steam Controller and Ironburg\u2019s patent. \u201cAlternative reality has no place here,\u201d said Webb during the trial.<\/p>\n

On the contrary, the jurors, who received the Steam Controller by mail, found that Valve\u2019s infringement was willful. Though their award was on the low end of the damages asked for by Ironburg, the jury\u2019s findings raise the possibility of enhancements, which are additional damages awarded for patent infringement<\/a> at the discretion of the court.<\/p>\n

Ironburg Inventions is the IP-holding arm of SCUF Gaming, which builds controllers and other gaming accessories, including custom-designed peripherals for professional console and PC gamers. The features on SCUF\u2019s controllers are covered by 122 patents, with many more pending. Ironburg and SCUF Gaming were acquired by computer peripheral and hardware manufacturer Corsair<\/a> in December 2019.<\/p>\n

MORE: The 10 Biggest Video Game Controversies of 2020<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Source: Law360<\/a>, AP News<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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Valve is ordered to pay $4 million in damages in the Steam Controller patent infringement case brought by Ironburg Inventions.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Valve Loses $4 Million in Steam Controller Patent Infringement Verdict - ITTeacherITFreelance.hk","description":"Valve is ordered to pay $4 million in damages in the Steam Controller patent infringement case brought by Ironburg Inventions."},"footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184417,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184416\/revisions\/184417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}