Valve: The design of the steam controller is said to have been stolen

The people responsible at Valve are said to have deliberately violated an existing patent from another company when designing the steam controller. Now the studio has been sued for this reason. The lawsuit comes from manufacturer SCUF, which is known for its own range of modified controllers for Xbox and PlayStation. The allegations state that Valve is said to have violated an Ironburg Inventions patent on the back of the hardware.

Ironburg Inventions is an offshoot of SCUF that specifically looks after the manufacturer's patents. According to the lawyer, SCUF is said to have drawn attention to the patent infringement as early as 2014. Despite this, Valve is said to have continued production of the Steam Controller and later started selling it. In detail, it should go to the two buttons on the back of the hardware. Microsoft also uses these "back paddles" in the Xbox Elite Controller - but has obtained a license from SCUF for this.

The back of the Steam Controller. Source: Valve Software, Steam A Valve attorney claims that the company did nothing wrong and that SCUF was relying on false and falsified information in the lawsuit. The SCUF lawyer is assuming a David versus Goliath situation. Accordingly, Valve would not value small business patents because of its size in the industry. The Steam Controller was first released in 2015. In November 2019, Valve announced the end of production of the hardware.

Source: Law360