Gabe Newell’s company is accused of ripping off a patent from SCUF to create its custom controller.

Law360 reports that Valve‘s trial started on Tuesday (even though the case began in 2014…) because the company allegedly infringed a patent to create its controller. Ironburg Inventions is the company that accuses Valve. This is the IP-holding branch of SCUF, a controller making company. The trial is taking place over the Internet via Zoom due to the coronavirus global pandemic.

Ironburg’s lawyer, Robert Becker, explained that they warned Valve in 2014 when they showcased the prototype of the Steam Controller, as it featured the same „rear-side control surfaces Ironburg had just patented.” Valve did not change it, releasing the controller in 2015, and by September 2018, they sold over one and a half million units. The patent in question is U.S. Patent No. 8,641,525, filed in 2011 by Simon Burgess and Ironburg CEO Duncan Ironmonger. Since then, Microsoft picked up the patent, as they licensed to use it for its Xbox controllers with permission.

On the diagram below, you can see that the patented controller includes „two additional controls (figure 11) located on the back in positions to be operated by the middle fingers of a user.” „Valve’s intentional disregard of its infringement is at the heart of this case. Valve did know that its conduct involved an unreasonable risk of infringement, but it simply proceeded to infringe anyway — the classic David and Goliath story: Goliath does what Goliath wants to do,” said Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP’s Becker (representing Ironburg). „Nothing you will see or hear from Ironburg will change what you can see with your own eyes and feel with your own hands when you get that Steam Controller. Alternative reality has no place here,” Valve’s lawyer, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP’s Trent Webb replied. The eight jurors will receive a controller via mail.

The funny thing is that the Steam Controller was discontinued in November 2019.

Source: Gamesindustry