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Written by AlteredWeapon
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Wednesday, 27 August 2008 12:50 |
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How do save $20.75 million, pay chicken feed for patent infringement, and make your competitor look foolish? Clauses! It looks like Immersion, the patent holders of the rumble feature on game controllers, has paid back Microsoft 80% of the $26 million that they originally took for patent infringement on the 360 rumble feature. (oddly the only thing that has not broken on the 360!) It turns out that a clause in the original lawsuit said that Immersion would refund MS $20.75 million if there was a settlement in their case against Sony. (some smart lawyer just got a big fat raise, and another got thrown out a window.) Since Immersion settled with Sony for $121 million, they had to pay MS. This happened after a court battle over what the word "settlement" means. (apparently Immersion said that they had an agreement with Sony and not a "settlement") This "agreement" also puts Immersion into Microsoft's Certified Partner Program for hardwareand paves the way for Immersion's work with haptic technologies. (basically, it's touch feedback) Read the whole article at Gamasutra.
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