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Controller Patent Suit Won Against Sony
ivec writes "Immersion Corporation announced that the jury returned a verdict favorable to Immersion in its patent infringement suit against Sony Computer Entertainment. The jury found that Sony infringed all the asserted claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,275,213 and 6,424,333 and that those claims were valid.
I was surprised how recent these filings were (2000 and 2001). The patents cover 'vibrating devices' such as joysticks."
I guess USPTO patent examiners have never played the N64 with a rumble pack...
If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
Information straight from the USPTO:
http://vsmca.tripod.com/sxd.pdf
If these don't count as prior art for vibrating joysticks, I don't know what does.
I dont think they research any of this anymore.
As it turns out, Microsoft settled a similar lawsuit with Immersion to the tune $26 million, and can license the techology for their own PC and XBox gamepads. Immersion is required to repay some of that amount in the event of a victory in the Sony lawsuit.
Subsequent to the settlement, Microsoft bought a large number of shares in Immersion, and also obtained the rights to sub-license the technology to other parties, including Sony.
It's been used before in what I can only describe as haptic sensory feedback in a discreet, pleasure inducing, package. . .
Wired News carried the story
Why didn't they sue Nintendo? Were they afraid they'd get sued for infringing an earlier patent by Nintendo that described the same thing?
The "Prior Art" section of the Rumble Pak patent states that "Furthermore, computer games have been known, in which a vibration generating source is provided in a joy-stick, and a vibration is generated at the time of an attack to an own fighter from a player's enemy fighter in a shooting game, for example."
Since Immersion's patent apparently only covers Joysticks it might not conflict with the Rumble Pak Patent, but the Rumble Pak patent clearly states that there has been prior art for joysticks (and that the Rumble Pak has no prior art since it isn't a joystick).
It lists Research disclosure 28373, "Joystick with Tactile Feedback", disclosed anonymously Nov. 1987., perhaps that's our prior art. Can anyone get that document?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
This dosen't mean that Dual-Shocks will go away does it? I really hope that PS3 keeps the Dual-Shock controlers as standard. It's by far the best controler design ever.
Prior art?
My N64 controller vibrates. My old MS SideWinder Joystick (1st Gen) vibrates. And I think these devices are older than 2000 or '01. Didn't one variation of the SNES have a vibrating-type device in it?
The press release is lacking details, and the patents only confused me. Can prior art be claimed here?
Amazing. I had no idea a publication like this existed.
http://www.researchdisclosure.com/
If anyone has an account heres whats needed.
Pickover, C., Evangelisti, C., and Selker, T. (1987) Novel feedback joystick with applications, Research Disclosure (K. Mason Publications, Ltd, England) November, No. 283. (28373, Disclosed anonymously).
ps. Someone please tell Sony, Thanks.
A man-machine interface which provides tactile feedback to various sensing body parts is disclosed. The device employs one or more vibrotactile units, where each unit comprises a mass and a mass-moving actuator. As the mass is accelerated by the mass-moving actuator, the entire vibrotactile unit vibrates. Thus, the vibrotactile unit transmits a vibratory stimulus to the sensing body part to which it is affixed.
- From the Patent
Is it just me or does this patent sound a heck of a lot like a vibrator from the abstract?
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
I remember assorted arcade games with feedback of various sorts well before 2000. The really expensive flight sims, for example, where the whole player area would move. Patent law seems stupid, so I doubt this will apply, but that had to be sometime during the 90s...
SAILING MISHAP
Seems patenting a "joystick" with "Vibrating functions" is very dodgey.. this could be so many sex toys.. maybe it'll be the porn industry which break this patent insanity through this one.
;D
"can you supply any evidence?"
"...look in every lonely girl's pantie draw and you have your evidence"
I like muppets.
Not knowing all of the details I can't be sure, but if this is to do with the DualShock controller and vibrational feedback in games then the timing has to be in Sony's favour.
I followed the links to the two patent applications, and the earlier of the two was filed in May 2000. The DualShock controller and games were out before that. I know that Final Fantasy VIII was out in Japan in 1999, and that definitely had feedback during the Summons.
Having said that the article (and other articles linked from it) don't clarify whether it was the DualShock or the DualShock2 that was the culprit. Changes for the PS2 may well have infringed on the claims - but otherwise the controller was out before the claim was made.
It seems to me, then, that either the judges goofed or that there's more to this than is apparent from what the media are telling us.
Either that or you can sue for infringement fo a patent in a device that was built before your claim - which seems kinda daft to me, but wouldn't exactly surprise me anymore.
Tiggs
"120 chars should be enough for everyone..."
a) Where is the Prototype supplied with this patent
and
b) Does it implement every possible implementation of the device/process/method as claimed in the patent
and
c) As the patent has been freely submitted to a public patent office am I not entitled to view, freely and unrestrictedly, all blueprints/designs/source code describing the device/process/method
I think this implementation satisfies a) and c) OK, but where would I get with this if I applied it to say MS Patents?
May the Maths Be with you!
I guess I won't be able to start production on that dildo-mouse now... -phixxr
ungggghhhh
RTFP?
The patents referenced do have 2000, 2001 filed dates. But those patents are continuations of patents that go back to 1995 that were never issued.
It's a convoluted process, but it's possible to go in an make alterations or additions to patents after filing, but before they are issued.
A prior art claim may have to go back earlier than the 1995 file date.
In a patent, the abstract section doesn't mean much, it's the claims that matter. In patent 6,275,213 claim 35 is one that is pretty specific to a "haptic interface" as opposed to a "rumble pack". It essentially talks about producing feedback when the cursor touches another graphic object on the screen.
I have one of the mice that Logitch used to sell that incoporates technology from Immersive. It's much more than something that shakes when you shoot a gun. As you move across the screen you can feel scroll bars, buttons. Dragging a window it feels like the window has mass compared to just moving the mouse across the table.