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Comic for: June 19th, 2007
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Gaming News: "Suing You For Suing Me"
Posted: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 by

In 2002 Immersion filed a lawsuit against both Microsoft and Sony for patent infringement in regards to rumble technology the companies used in their game controllers. In 2003 Microsoft settled with Immersion for $26 million. In 2007, after over 2 years of appeals, Sony settled with Immersion for $97 million for damages and interest plus another $22.5 million to license the rumble technology through 2009. Apparently part of the settlement deal with Microsoft stated that if Immersion settled with Sony, they would repay Microsoft based on the Sony settlement amount. But, after settling with Sony, Immersion "modified their 2006 annual report with a statement proclaiming they no longer felt obligated to pay Microsoft anything".
Source: 1Up.Com [ more info ]

Like the source article indicates, Immersion agreed to pay Microsoft money if they got money out of Sony. Which they did. But, now that Immersion has gotten their hands into Sony's pockets, they are claiming they owe Microsoft nothing. Needless to say Microsoft disagrees.

I just can't wrap my head around why they feel they owe Microsoft nothing. It's right there in the settlement agreement. I was going to read the 2006 shreholder report (that Immersion retro-actively modified), but it's 108 pages of eye-numbing textual rambling. So... I gave up on that idea pretty quickly.

As for that final bubble, I know technically no one can own the rights to a word. But if any company could figure out how to... it'd probably be Microsoft.

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