The jury votes unanimously in favor of the applicant
Last week, we reported how Valve was facing a lawsuit over the design of its Steam Controller hardware, with manufacturer Ironburg Inventions, (acting on behalf of the SCUF Gaming subsidiary), claiming that the discontinued gamepad infringed its patents. Yesterday, a jury voted unanimously in favor of Ironburg.
The patent in question concerned the implementation of rear triggers – located at the bottom of the Steam Controller and operated by the player’s middle fingers. This simple invention was patented in 2011 by Simon Burgess and Ironburg’s CEO, Duncan Ironmonger. Although the design was officially sublicensed for brands such as Xbox, Ironburg claimed that Valve did not have that license and was therefore infringing its patent with the Steam Controller design.
After the jury ruled in favor of Ironburg on all seven patent infringement claims, the court ordered Valve to pay $ 4 million in damages. Ironburg was initially pushing for $ 11 million, down to $ 6 million (comparable to the Xbox sub-license agreement). It is important to note, however, that the jury considered Valve’s patent infringement “intentional” and, as such, the district judge could increase the amount of the damage.
As an interesting aside, due to the restrictions of COVID-19, the trial was conducted remotely using the online calling tool Zoom, becoming the first socially distant jury trial in the United States.
$ 4 million verdict in the first trial of the virtual patent jury [Law.com / Gamesindustry.biz]
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