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Forums - Microsoft - Microsoft gets $20.75 million from Sony

Loud_Hot_White_Box on 27 August 2008
mrstickball said:

From AP:

Immersion to pay Microsoft $20.75 million of Sony's money in Xbox-controller imbroglio

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Immersion Corp. has agreed to pay Microsoft Corp. $20.75 million to settle a legal tangle that started with a suit against Microsoft over the "rumble" feature of its Xbox game console controllers.

San Jose-based Immersion sued Microsoft in 2002, alleging that the Xbox controller infringed on a patent for force feedback, Immersion's specialty. The Xbox controller shakes when triggered by a game event, like a car driving over a speed bump. Microsoft agreed to pay Immersion $26 million to settle the lawsuit.

Immersion also sued Sony Corp., which makes the PlayStation game console. That suit was resolved in March last year, when the electronics maker agreed to pay Immersion $22.5 million over three years, plus more than $100 million in costs, royalties and patent license fees.

Immersion's agreement with Microsoft contained a clause requiring it to hand over a slice of any settlement with Sony -- a minimum of $15 million, plus percentages of any amount over $100 million. Immersion said the agreement with Sony did not trigger that clause, but Microsoft disagreed, and filed suit last year in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Immersion counterclaimed that Microsoft breached a confidentiality agreement.

Both the Microsoft suit and Immersion's counterclaim have now been settled, Immersion said.

"We are pleased to resolve our outstanding dispute with Microsoft and to put this litigation behind us," said Immersion president and chief executive Clent Richardson.

"We are pleased to have reached a resolution to our legal dispute with Immersion that includes a $20.75 million payment to Microsoft," Steve Aeschbacher, an associate general counsel for Microsoft, in a statement. "We are gratified that we have successfully resolved our claims under the 2003 settlement we negotiated with Immersion, which provided benefits to both companies and specific rights to Microsoft."

Immersion shares rose 8 cents to $6.55 in extended trading after the announcement.

 

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?start=0&id=39303

Why do you post anti-Sony stuff, mrstickball?



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Mistershine on 27 August 2008

Don't MS own a big chunk(30%?) of Immersion? If so this would be tantamount to paying themselves.



Spankey on 27 August 2008
pbroy said:

 

Why do people hate you so much mrstickball? Smack em with your pimp hand. >_<

OT: Yeah, I hate these companies that just file patents, but don't even make anything of it. I think these companies just make a crappy product that implements the features, but never intend to sell it to consumers. Then hopes that some other company crosses that patent line and when they get successful they strike. There should be a law against this crap. I wouldn't be stuck with a gimped PS3 controller right now if it was for this lazy company who lives off lawsuits.

 

the way you said that put me in mind of the good old cybersqatters back before the internet really took off. Big corps ended up paying millions. Now I'm sure there are regulations for that in place, and i agree with you that there should definately be laws against this kind of thing.



Proud Sony Rear Admiral

Uraeus on 27 August 2008

Seems to be some misunderstandings in this thread. Microsoft paid over 125 Million to Immersion to settle their rumble lawsuit. They got 20.75 Million back due to this deal with Immersion. That still leaves over a 104 million. So any claim of MS getting rumble for 'free' is rather crazy.

Based on the details of the deal though I guess it is clear that Sony did end up paying quite a bit over 100 million (probably also to cover the PS2) as Microsoft got 7 million more than their minimum amount. Of course without knowing the actual percentage is not really possible to know how much more.



MikeB on 27 August 2008

@ mrstickball

IMO your posting is flawed and misleading, Microsoft gets money from Immersion Corp, Immersion Corp got money from Sony.

In some countries it would be considered anti-competitive to demand money through settlements with other companies as this complicates reaching a settlement at all.

Also I think the US patent laws are seriously flawed, lots of rewarded patents are rather meaningless, trivial stuff that has been applied for ages or embody nothing special or groundbreaking but for instance the original involved company which implemented this approach folded, didn't do business in the United States or companies deemed the technology implementations trivial and minor.

Regarding your personal issues with me and my posting history, yes I am interested in comparisons between the 360 and PS3. And yes those are IMO clearly to the advantage of the PS3 from a technological perspective. In any case I only try to post well argumented and as much evidence as possible in my postings, personally I don't see anything wrong with that.



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

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Kyros on 27 August 2008

LOL Is that even legal?

We will settle with you first if you give us money back when you shake down the other company?



playnext3 on 27 August 2008

20 million its nothing to sony



MrBubbles on 27 August 2008
Uraeus said:
Seems to be some misunderstandings in this thread. Microsoft paid over 125 Million to Immersion to settle their rumble lawsuit. They got 20.75 Million back due to this deal with Immersion. That still leaves over a 104 million. So any claim of MS getting rumble for 'free' is rather crazy.

Based on the details of the deal though I guess it is clear that Sony did end up paying quite a bit over 100 million (probably also to cover the PS2) as Microsoft got 7 million more than their minimum amount. Of course without knowing the actual percentage is not really possible to know how much more.

 

where are you getting the 125mil from? because the article states 26mil



"I like my steaks how i like my women.  Bloody and all over my face"

"Its like sex, but with a winner!"

MrBubbles Review Threads: Bill Gates, Jak II, Kingdom Hearts II, The Strangers, Sly 2, Crackdown, Zohan, Quarantine, Klungo Sssavesss Teh World, MS@E3'08, WATCHMEN(movie), Shadow of the Colossus, The Saboteur

iron_megalith on 27 August 2008
Loud_Hot_White_Box said:
mrstickball said:

From AP:

Immersion to pay Microsoft $20.75 million of Sony's money in Xbox-controller imbroglio

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Immersion Corp. has agreed to pay Microsoft Corp. $20.75 million to settle a legal tangle that started with a suit against Microsoft over the "rumble" feature of its Xbox game console controllers.

San Jose-based Immersion sued Microsoft in 2002, alleging that the Xbox controller infringed on a patent for force feedback, Immersion's specialty. The Xbox controller shakes when triggered by a game event, like a car driving over a speed bump. Microsoft agreed to pay Immersion $26 million to settle the lawsuit.

Immersion also sued Sony Corp., which makes the PlayStation game console. That suit was resolved in March last year, when the electronics maker agreed to pay Immersion $22.5 million over three years, plus more than $100 million in costs, royalties and patent license fees.

Immersion's agreement with Microsoft contained a clause requiring it to hand over a slice of any settlement with Sony -- a minimum of $15 million, plus percentages of any amount over $100 million. Immersion said the agreement with Sony did not trigger that clause, but Microsoft disagreed, and filed suit last year in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Immersion counterclaimed that Microsoft breached a confidentiality agreement.

Both the Microsoft suit and Immersion's counterclaim have now been settled, Immersion said.

"We are pleased to resolve our outstanding dispute with Microsoft and to put this litigation behind us," said Immersion president and chief executive Clent Richardson.

"We are pleased to have reached a resolution to our legal dispute with Immersion that includes a $20.75 million payment to Microsoft," Steve Aeschbacher, an associate general counsel for Microsoft, in a statement. "We are gratified that we have successfully resolved our claims under the 2003 settlement we negotiated with Immersion, which provided benefits to both companies and specific rights to Microsoft."

Immersion shares rose 8 cents to $6.55 in extended trading after the announcement.

 

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?start=0&id=39303

Why do you post anti-Sony stuff, mrstickball?

 

Oh my god.. is Gobias speaking the truth or am I blinded by this lying link. :P

 

Anyway...

@stickball

What!? You don't pay me to do that. It's so in your post history. :D

 

@pbroy

Technically I don't hate him that makes me want to insult him or assault him verbally. He only did a strike two with that

-ff13 thread he made.

-the thing about contesting why person A posts only anti-<put company name here> stuff only.

 

The rest I respect it.

An article is an article. Why should I change the thing when I'm not getting payed. :D



EaglesEye379 on 27 August 2008

How is this Anti-Sony? This is just a tussle between Immersion and Microsoft, and the only loser here is Immersion. Both MS and Sony ended up with the 'rumble' technology and MS just got extra legal fees because of a broken agreement, which involved a cut from the fees paid by Sony.

This is a far cry from Anti-MS and Anti-360 posts from certain posters above where every bit of research and evidence (even circumstancial/anectodal) are given to put the company and 360 in a bad light in hope that they can show people how stupid they were to buy a 360 or even pay a dime to MS.