Leading innovators of haptics, Immersions was founded in 1993. Immersions’ touch feedback technology provides users with a more enthralling feel of the digital world. The company’s high-quality haptic technology enables the partners to enhance users' experience and transform the experience of video games and music by providing distinctive confirmation and expanding usability when audio and visual feedbacks are ineffective. Immersion's Touch Sense technology provides haptics in mobile phone, automotive, gaming, medical, and consumer electronics products from world-class companies and has been adopted by over 3 billion electronic devices.

Recently, Immersions proclaimed its settlement over patent litigation with Samsung Electronics Ltd., a South Korean company. It announced entering into a multi-year license agreement with Samsung resolving the patent-infringement litigation brought against Samsung on May 13, 2019.

Going back in history, cases of infringement has been brought up against Samsung earlier also. For instance, the smartphone patent war of Apple and Samsung (Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Ltd.) wherein Samsung was accused of infringing the technology patent of Apple. Further, Samsung was alleged of infringing the touch interaction technology patent by using it in several of its products including the Galaxy S8. The claim was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Marshall Division and the Fuzhou Intermediate Court in China. In its complaint, the technology company mentioned that the haptic technology was licensed by Samsung over the years, before refusing to renew the patent license in 2015. Samsung knowingly and deliberately continued the use of haptic technology in its products even after denying the renewal of the patent. Moving on, Immersions also sued Samsung along with Motorola Mobility in the year 2017, accusing the companies of infringing 5 haptic related technology patent by using it in their smartphones.

Settling up these patent litigations, Immersion has now entered into a license agreement with Samsung, however keeping the terms of the agreement confidential. Ramzi Haidamus, the CEO and President of Immersions, on the above settlement said, “We are delighted to have resolved this litigation and to grant Samsung a license for our patents and advanced haptic technologies. We are excited to start a new chapter in our partnership with Samsung aimed at delivering high-quality haptics in their mobile devices.”

Even though the terms of the agreement have been kept confidential, the license and the final settlement come to heel with the Immersions’ model of business related to quarterly payments and revenue recognition.

Author: Sonal Sodhani,  Legal Intern at Global Patent Filing. In case of any queries please contact/write back to us at support@globalpatentfiling.com.