Earlier this year Immersion Corporation, one of the leading companies in haptic feedback technology, filed a lawsuit against Apple over haptic technology used in the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and Apple Watch. Today, the company has filed a second lawsuit against Apple and AT&T in which it says the MacBook and MacBook Pro violate one patent relating to haptic feedback. Additionally, Immersion says the iPhone 6s infringes on three more of its patents not mentioned in the first lawsuit.
More specifically, Immersion says that the Force Touch trackpad of the MacBook and MacBook Pro violate patents that it owns. On the iPhone 6s side, the 3D Touch functionality is said to infringe on Immersion patents.
The specific patents in question are listed below:
As for why AT&T is also included in the lawsuit, Immersion says that because the carrier sells Apple products, it is thereby “encouraging and facilitating infringing use by others.” By that logic, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and other carriers should also be included in the lawsuit.
- U.S. Patent No. 8,749,507, “Systems and Methods for Adaptive Interpretation of Input from a Touch-Sensitive Input Device”
- U.S. Patent No. 7,808,488, “Method and Apparatus for Providing Tactile Sensations”
- U.S. Patent No. 8,581,710, “Systems and Methods for Haptic Confirmation of Commands”
The complaints also assert infringement by the Apple MacBook and Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display of the following Immersion patent:
- U.S. Patent No. 7,336,260, “Method and Apparatus for Providing Tactile Sensations”
Immersion says that it would like a jury trial in an effort to resolve the lawsuit against Apple and AT&T and would like to receive compensatory damages. In its earnings release today, Immersion also asked that progress be made regarding a United States International Trade Commission Complaint over the same issues that seeks a U.S. sales injection on the aforementioned products.
