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Valve loses Steam Controller patent infringement caseJury trial awards $4 million in damages to Ironburg Inventions
Jury trial awards $4 million in damages to Ironburg Inventions
Valve have been ordered to pay $4 million in damages for allegedly infringing patents with the Steam Controller. Ironburg Inventions, the patent holding company for controller brand SCUF Gaming, alleged that they warned Valve of the infringement in 2014.
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SCUF Gaming arethe makers of custom controllers, several of which feature remappable buttons on the back as per the patent.
Patent stories like this always seem a shame to me. A big company shouldn’t be able to copy and profit from the work of a smaller one, but the concept of “buttons on the back of a controller” ought to be too broad and obvious to be granted a patent. The Steam Controller execution of that idea also looks to me to be different than SCUF Gaming’s, in form if not function. I wasn’t on the jury for this trial, though.
I’ve got a soft spot for my Steam Controller, though mostly because my kid, when he was littler, liked the “di-do di-do” bleeps it would make when you turned it on. Otherwise I haven’t used it in years.Valve discontinued the controller in 2019.
