Apple And AT&T Sued For Infringement Over iPhone Haptic Patents (computerworld.com)

Haptic technology company Immersion has accused Apple and carrier AT&T of infringement of three of its patents in the latest iPhone models and Apple watches. Immersion, which claims over 2,100 issued or pending patents worldwide covering various aspects and commercial applications of haptic or touch feedback technology, has asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban the import of the specified iPhone and Apple Watch models in the U.S., besides suing for damages in a Delaware federal court, company CEO Victor Viegas said in a conference call Thursday. Immersion decided to include AT&T and subsidiary AT&T Mobility in the action because the carrier is the most significant distributor of the iPhone in the U.S.

Comments

Haptics Patents

[Anonymous Coward]

FTA - "Feedback based on pressure-sensitive interactions with the touch screens."

The real question is, "Did "Immersion" actually invent anything novel, did they regurgitate an obvious concept, or did they describe something that they could not actually pull off?" IANAL, however upon examination of the three patents in question:

8,619,051 should be invalidated by prior art of a force feedback joystick.

8,773,356 is a meaningless over-broad software "method" patent.

8,659,571 is another meaningless over-broad software "method" patent.

If I were part of a patent trial jury, I would consider nullification of this and many other patent cases. If the patent system is broken, the courts are broken, and the legislature is broken, then it is our duty to make a train wreck out of patent trolls.

Re:Cockroaches and patent trolls

[Holi]

I'm not sure you can call Immersion a patent troll, They have been making haptic devices for years, and licensing out their tech to other companies. Look at he logitech ifeel mouse, it used immersion tech back in XP days.