Valve on trial for allegedly infringing controller patents
The accusations come from Ironburg Inventions, the IP-holding branch of controller maker SCUF, Law360 reported. The trial is taking place on Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions, with opening arguments seeing Ironburg's lawyer Robert Becker explaining that Valve was "warned" in 2014 that its Steam Controller, only a prototype then, was featuring the same "rear-side control surfaces Ironburg had just patented." Valve carried on with its prototype though, releasing the Steam Controller in 2015 and selling 1.5 million units as of September 2018. The patent in question is U.S. Patent No. 8,641,525...