Valve is ordered to pay $ 4 million in damages for the alleged patent infringement with the Steam Controller. Ironburg Inventions, the patent holding company for the holding company SCUF Gaming, claims that they warned Valve in 2014.
Ironburg obtained a patent in 2014 for a controller that ‘has two additional controls at the rear in positions that can be controlled by a user’s middle finger’. The steam controller had buttons on the back in that position.
SCUF Gaming is the manufacturer of personal controllers, several of which are available with the buttons on the back according to the patent.
“Valve did know that his behavior posed an unreasonable risk of burglary, but it continued to infringe – the classic story of David and Goliath: Goliath does what Goliath wants to do,” Ironburg’s lawyer argued. as reported by Videogames Chronicle.
This argument would probably sound better if SCUF and Ironburg Invention were not both bought by hardware giant Corsair last year. They are quite the Goliath himself.
Patent stories like these always seem a disgrace to me. A large company would not be able to copy the work of a smaller company and benefit from it, but the concept of “buttons on the back of a controller” should be too broad and obvious to grant a patent. The implementation of the Steam Controller of the idea also seems to me different from that of SCUF Gaming, in form if it does not work. However, I was not on the jury for this trial.
I have a soft spot for my Steam Controller, though mostly because my kid, when he was little, likes the “di-do di-do” sounds that would cause it if you turned it on. Otherwise, I have not used it for years. Valve discontinued the controller in 2019.