The jury voted unanimously in favor of the plaintiff
Last week we reported on how Valve was facing a lawsuit for Steam Controller hardware design, with manufacturer Ironburg Inventions, (acting on behalf of subsidiary SCUF Gaming), alleging 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 CEO Duncan Ironmonger. Although the design has been officially subauthorized by brands such as Xbox, Ironburg claimed that Valve did not have this license and therefore infringed its patent with the steam controller design.
After the jury ruled in favor of Ironburg in the seven patent infringement claims, the court ordered Valve to pay damages in the amount of $ 4 million. Ironburg had been 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 found that Valve’s patent infringement was “intentional” and, as such, the district judge could increase the amount of damages.
As an interesting section, due to the restrictions of COVID-19, the trial was conducted remotely using the online calling tool Zoom, making it the first trial of the completely socially distanced jury in the United States.
$ 4 million verdict in the first trial of the virtual patent jury [Law.com / Gamesindustry.biz]
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